Brothers Till The End
by bejuizb
Summary: -REPOSTED- Follow the story of Oron and Dale, two brothers who together fight against the Grineer and Corpus and uncover the mysteries of the world they live in, one of which could change the very course of existence in the system.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Sabotage

"Lotus, do you copy?" asked the Tenno piloting the Loki Warframe.

"What is it Tenno?" asked Lotus, her robotic voice loud in his ears. _I have to adjust that when we get back_, he thought.

"We're almost at the objective. Need advice on any obstacles in the way."

"Your way is clear. Proceed to the terminal and deploy the datamass. Echo squad is waiting for you at the rendezvous point" said Lotus with finality.

Silence permeated the Loki's helmet once again. He acknowledged silently, and began to move towards the terminal room.

"What did she say Dale?" asked the Rhino Warframe following the Loki, his rifle aimed at the ready.

"Our way is clear, Oron", replied his brother. "Didn't you hear her reply?"

'No. My communicator must be malfunctioning," replied the Rhino in his deep voice.

"That's a problem. I forgot to dial in Vivianna's frequency on my comms unit. Let's hope she doesn't get too worried."

Oron nodded and the both of them made their way towards the air of readiness was completely gone from the duo as they made their way towards the objective almost casually. But appearances can be deceiving. Both of them were Tenno, masters of both blade and gun. They were alert and ready, but Lotus was correct as always. Nothing served as a hindrance while they deposited the datamass at the terminal. The Lotus had created a polymorphic code that kept any traces of tampering hidden while it did its job. By depositing this datamass, the Lotus had gained control of this ship's core functionality, such as its cooling systems, fuel consumption and several other factors. This was by far, a much more efficient way to take control of a ship, rather than to plunder it by force. Dale looked at the terminal one last time to confirm that the datamass was working.

"Well, our job is done," he said while looking at the silent giant that was his brother, "we best get going quickly. Vivanna and the others are waiting for us."

Oron nodded, and the both of them began running towards the rendezvous point, about a thousand meters from where they currently were. Dale slowed his pace down so that his brother could keep up with him. He didn't mind though, this pace allowed him to think. Think about how each and every single task him and his fellow Tenno did to stop the war from escalating merely slowed down the colossus that was Grineer Empire minutely. How the Tenno, once mighty warriors, were forced to scurry around, silently disabling ships and skulking around in the shadows to ensure their own survival. Pessimistic as always, Oron would say. He glanced at his brother. I wish I thought as simply as him.

His thoughts were interrupted by a giant hand stopping him in his tracks. Oron had heard something, and both of them quickly took to the shadows.

"Footsteps," said Oron, his rifle aimed at the ready.

Dale cursed himself for not paying attention to his surroundings. "I'll cloak, and make my way behind them. If there's only one of them, I'll deal with it. Any more of them, and we'll split it up." He placed his hand on Oron's rifle and pushed it down. "We have to keep it quiet at all costs". Oron holstered his Rifle and drew a giant axe from his back. The blade glinted dully from the ship's red lights.

"Go."

Dale disappeared in a haze of energy. Oron silently waited in the shadows, using his brother's helmet feed to observe what Dale saw.

Invisible to everyone but Warframes, Dale soundlessly crept forward, his sword drawn and ready for any ambushes. He stopped moving when he saw two Grineer soldiers walking towards where Oron was. Both of them were wearing light armor and were talking in low voices. _A skeleton crew_, surmised Dale, _no weapons_. He relayed this information back to Oron, who remained in the darkness. Both the Grineer soldiers walked oblivious to the presence of both Tenno. There was no way that they could stealth past them, especially Oron. The corridor was too narrow for that.

"We're going to have to take them out. My cloak's going to run out in 10 seconds. Take the other one out when I kill the first". All he got was a grunt from Oron.

Dale crept up behind the closest Grineer, and aimed carefully. True to his aim, he plunged the blade forward, severing the Grineer's lungs and spine in one stab. His body went limp. At that precise moment Dale uncloaked. The remaining Grineer jumped in surprise when he saw Dale with his sword through his fellow cormrade.

"What t-"

He never completed his sentence because at that very instant a giant axe rent him in two. Dale drew his blade back into its sheath as the two halves of the body thudded onto the ground. The Scindo was on Oron's back, one side gleaming red from the blood.

"Not completely according to plan" said Dale, grinning.

"But effective nonetheless" said Oron. He started running again.

"We best catch up with the others fast."

Dale looked back at the already decomposing Grinner corpses. Their blades were infused with a corrosive substance that the Lotus had discovered on Jupiter, which started decomposing the bodies within a few seconds. He ran after the Rhino, his footsteps noiseless in comparison to his brother's loud thuds.

"Right behind you, big guy."

"What took you both so long?" asked the Trinity.

"Sorry Vivian," replied Dale, "we were just being more cautious".

She just looked at him. Even though he couldn't see his friend's face, Dale knew that she was angry with him. A few tense moments passed, before she replied with an exasperated sigh.

"Just ensure that you keep us posted on comms. Reese and Siren went looking for you both. They're on their way back now".

To this, Oron replied in his rumbling voice.

"My comms unit has malfunctioned. I'm responsible for not keeping you or the others posted. My apologies."

Vivian nodded and the three of them waited in silence. For the first time since they boarded the ship, they were relaxed; all three of them were hiding underneath the massive reactor that powered the Grineer dreadnought. The reactor powered the massive cannon that adorned this ship. Dale was always amazed at how exactly a technologically lackluster race like the Grineer could build such solid, sturdy ships. The Empire ran on scraps and yet possessed a dominating presence in the system. At that moment two more Tenno joined them. One was a Volt, clad in a pristine white armor, followed by a Banshee wielding a bow.

"You're back. We were just talking about you," acknowledged the Trinity.

Reese nodded. "Did your mission go as planned?"

Oron liked Reese. The Volt fought with a fury that was unmatched by most others. They were comrades back during the Great War. Ever since he'd woken up from cryostasis he hadn't had an opportunity to fight alongside him.

"Yes. We encountered two crew members, but they were both unarmed. I'm sorry by the way. I didn't mean to worry you all," replied Dale.

"You're forgiven brother. We were unnecessarily worried too." replied Siren. Her voice was heavily modulated, like she was unsure of what voice she should speak in.

Dale grinned under his helmet. Someone like Siren acknowledging his prowess was a source of pride for him.

Vivian drew her shotgun."We'd best get going. Twenty minutes from now, this room will be full of plasma. We should leave this ship before things start getting busy." She started walking out of the room. The others acknowledged her silently and followed.

The ship was completely quiet, apart from the rattles and groans that were normally associated with shoddy Grineer craftsmanship. The five of them stuck to the shadows just in case any crew members had woken up earlier than expected. Tenno were trained to be shadows, completely silent and always focused. It was nigh impossible to take one by surprise but the Code has a saying that every one of them abide by: Better safe than surprised. And so the group moved swiftly throughout the bowels of the gigantic ship, towards the back where their small ship was anchored to the dreadnought. Almost three quarters of the way there, the Lotus started speaking on comms.

" On further analysis of this ship's data logs, I've discovered that this dreadnought houses four Tenno cryopods. Sargus Ruk managed to strike a deal with the Corpus to trade some crypods for raw materials. I have marked a waypoint at the location they are stored in. I need you to recover them Tenno. One way or another."

Vivian inquired, " What do you mean by 'one way or another'?"

"You may go weapons green if you have to. The main priority from now on are those Tenno."

"Understood. We will recover the pods as soon as possible. How long until we have a clear window of escape?"

"Ten minutes, Tenno. Hurry up".

Vivian looked back at the others.

"S#&$."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Finding the Tenno

They decided to split up. Reese and Siren would go and prepare the ship for the new arrivals. Being the healer on the team, Vivian decided to go with Oron and Dale to rescue the new Tenno. No one barred their way, so they abandoned all attempts of stealth and ran towards the objective as fast as they could. They needed to leave before the Grineer troops woke up, or things would get really hairy. When they reached the waypoint, they noticed that it was a small storage room, with three open cryopods.

"Lotus," said a worried Oron, "The cryopods have been opened."

"What?!"

"The pods. They're empty."

"Damnit!" The Lotus's tone took Oron by surprise. He'd never heard her speak in this manner. He was used to her replying in a cool and composed manner ever since she found them.

"How do we find them now?" asked Vivian to no one in particular.

A shrill alarm answered her question for her. That tone for the alarm was the Grineer equivalent of 'intruder detected'.

"Lotus-" started Vivian.

"Cargo deck B. Two floors beneath you. The Grineer have detected the three Tenno. Hurry, our comrades are unarmed!"

Before she had even completed her sentence, the three of them ran towards the nearest flight of stairs and simply jumped down the 100 or so feet shaft that led to the cargo deck.

Dale felt the wind rushing past his helmet as he prepared to hit the ground. On impact the three of them rolled to dissipate all the kinetic energy they had gained during the fall. Without breaking a stride they ran further into the cargo bay. All three of them heard a clattering noise ahead followed by a few explosions.

"They're shooting at them!" shouted Vivian. "Dale, rush ahead and help them out."

The Loki broke into a dead sprint. He'd soon left Oron and Vivian behind but that wasn't his concern now. He needed to save his comrades. As the sound of gunfire grew louder, he drew his Akboltos and checked the magazines. Confirming that they were full he readied himself both mentally and physically. Rounding the corner, he witnessed a scene that could only be classified as a clusterfuck. Nearly a hundred Grineer marines were firing into a sphere that seemed to be a controlled blizzard. None of the shots had penetrated the globe, not even the rockets from the Bombard units scattered around the cargo bay.

_A Frost_, thought Dale, as he fired the pistols into the swarm of soldiers. _Thank the spirits!_ The crystalline bolts added a new sound to the clatter of the Hinds, while silencing a few as well. Within seconds a score of soldiers lay dead, pinned to the walls and floor in odd angles. His Akboltos smoking, Dale crouched and started to reload his guns when one Napalm noticed him. Dale was caught reloading as it fired a rocket at him. Dale flipped backwards to avoid the impending blast of the rocket but the shockwave caught him nonetheless. It knocked the wind out of him as he was thrown onto the floor in a daze. The explosion had attracted the attention of the Grineer firing at the globe. They were all screaming something at Dale, but his ears were ringing from the close proximity explosion. The sudden loss of many of their comrades enrage the Grineer, causing the whole swarm to fire at him instead of the globe. They wanted blood for their brothers and the Tenno on the floor was responsible.

Dale swore. He was fast, but not fast enough to dodge the hundreds of bullets that were flying towards him at supersonic speeds.. He waited for the inevitable pain, but it never came. The massive silver form of his brother hunched over him, protecting him from the barrage of bullets. Dale heard the pinging of the bullets as they bounced off of his brother's back.

"Get to cover!" grunted Oron, "I can't protect you for much longer!"

Dale nodded and cloaked. He scrambled to cover immediately and started to reload his Akboltos. Oron simply turned around and unholstered his rifle. The muzzle of the Braton spat flames as controlled bursts hit several Grineer, silencing them forever. Oron slowly walked backwards, continuously firing into the rapidly thinning swarm. Suddenly a squad broke off from the main group and rushed towards him. Oron noted the Heavy Gunner running towards him, her Gorgon machine gun focusing fire solely at him. At that very instant Dale poked out from cover and cloaked. He needed to deal with the other Grineer while Oron focused on the heavy units. He fired off a few rounds into the group rushing towards him, as Oron started firing at the Heavy Gunner. He was rapidly going through his ammo and his Iron Skin was about to diminish. Oron saw several Grineer cut open by an unseen force. Dale, he surmised. He had managed to whittle down most of the Grineer rushing towards him, but he was completely out of ammo. He threw the useless rifle aside, and unsheathed his axe. With a loud battlecry he ran staright at the Heavy Gunner, rapidly building momentum. Just as he was withing striking distance of her, she slammed into the ground with a force strong enough to knock most people off their feet. But Oron was expecting that. He had jumped at the perfect time, and now his axe came swinging down at her shoulder. The combined momentum from him and his axe allowed him to tear right through her. The Gorgon was finally quiet, with no one to fire it.

Oron quickly did a battle assessment as he ducked under cover, picking up the Gorgon as he went. Amidst the bullets whizzing past his head, he saw that together, him and Dale had cleared out a large majority of troops. Dale was cloaked and was slaughtering them with his Ethers. He had left 7 heavy units for Oron to deal with. All of whom were concentrating at the storage container he was currently taking cover behind. He saw as Vivian entered the fray, her Strun booming as she quickly destroyed two more Bombards, before helping Dale clear out the rest of the troops.. That left five units for Oron to deal with. Oron breathed deeply as he calmed himself down. He reactivated Iron Skin and jumped out of cover headed straight for a Napalm. They were the deadliest of the heavy units, able to create fireballs far larger than possible and create pure carnage. He swung his axe with all his might and cut off both of the Napalm's legs. As he fell, Oron swung his axe once more and decapitated him. He quickly moved on to the next set of Heavy units who were covered by several Lancers and Troopers. Tunnel vision set in as the Rhino swung with wide arcs, cleaving through all of the Grineer as bullets harmlessly impacted his silver skin. Dale saw his brother annihilate al of those soldiers with ease. Oron had entered a zen like state, allowing him to reach his absolute maximum potential. As he slaughtered more Grineer, Dale noted that this property was what allowed Oron to be the leader of the Aegis guard during the Great War, was what made him the greatest Rhino pilot in Tenno history. Vivian seemed to know where Dale was and she joined him as they bot stopped shooting for a quick respite and reacquainting themselves with the battle.

"You take the left, I'll work on the right," shouted Vivian over the clatter of bullets.

Dale simply nodded and cloaked once again. Vivian popped out of cover and blasted several more Troopers off their feet. Carrying a shotgun meant that out of the group, she was the most ammo efficient, and this allowed her to clear out the right side of the storage room with absolutely no difficulty. Dale worked on the lft side, while Oron was busy tearing apart Grineer in the middle of the room.

With the three of them working together, none of the Grineer stood a chance. Minutes after they'd entered the room, all of the Grineer lay dead, their bodies all lying around in different states.. Dale uncloaked as he regrouped with the others in front of the snowglobe. Oron was breathing hard, his axe glinting from the carnage it had caused. Vivian was calmly fixing a jam on her shotgun. The Strun was a good shotgun, but it had it's drawbacks, regular jams being one of them.

"That was hairy!" said Dale, to which Oron chuckled.

"It was indeed. You were lucky I managed to reach you in time Dale. You should have started firing once you cloaked."

"He's right, you idiot," said Vivian as the trio walked into the globe. Dale chuckled at that.

"Sorry mom!" he said with a mocking tone, for which he received a punch to the back of his head.

The air got noticeably colder as they walked in. Vivian held her shotgun at the ready. Tenno fresh out of the cryopod would be extremely delirious and uncoordinated due to lack of fluids in their systems. She knew that they meant no harm, but it was better to be safe that sorry. Flecks of snow kept the three of them from seeing clearly into the globe. Dale took a step forward and stopped, as a golden scythe suddenly appeared by his neck, the blade lightly pushing into his Warframe. He felt something heavy press into his back, and knew that someone had got him in a deathgrip. Oron and Vivian were taken aback. They sensed absolutely nothing apart from themselves inside the globe, and yet they were ambushed. Oron kept his cool and stayed still, while Vivian pumped her shotgun. As she pointed it at someone above Dale, a voice emanated, seemingly from all sides of the globe.

"Put that weapon down, or your friend dies!"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Oron saw the scythe. Gold adorned it's blade and a familiar script was inscribed near the tip.

"Fear the Reaper," he muttered to himself.

"What did you say?" asked the voice.

"Fear the Reaper," said Oron. "The words on your scythe. Is this much proof insufficient for you Brother?"

Vivian looked at Oron. Brother?

Suddenly, Dale felt himself being released from the stranger's grip, followed by the globe of snow dissipating. He quickly turned around so see his assaulter.

A Frost stood in front of him, his warframe adorned with gold motifs. The massive gold scythe that was around his neck a few moments ago now hung by his side loosely. _A Frost Prime. Unbelievable_. The Frost replied in a shaky voice, which was a lot weaker than the voice he had a few moments ago.

"I apologize Brother," he said to Dale, "I needed to be careful."

Vivian rushed up to the Frost as he crumbled to the ground; his breathing came in great gasps as his body had given away to the fatigue. She removed his helmet as fast as she could. He was severely dehydrated. _Spirits know how tired he must be after holding up that globe._ His helmet came off with a hiss, underneath which was a young man covered in a sheen of sweat. His icy blue eyes were unfocused and his eyelids were closing despite his attempts to keep it open. Vivian rested his head and started healing him. Oron and Dale stood close, watching silently. This was the first time they had seen this sort of reaction from any of their brothers or sisters. As the Frost started to fidget about while the nanites began to work on his cells, Vivian comforted him by wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Easy...Easy...Calm your mind Brother. You will be fine very soon..."

"Alex..." came the hoarse reply from the Frost, who had now stopped fidgeting. _Alex. His name is Alex._ Vivian noticed the colour returning to his pale skin. The healing nanites were doing their job. Being a Trinity, she was used to curing all kinds of ailments. Cryostasis re-entry was the most taxing on the Tenno and this one had pushed himself to his absolute limits. As the Frost regained his strength, Vivian asked him, "Alex, where are the others? Four of you were there on this ship."

Alex looked at a crate behind Dale. "There," he said with a sigh. "Two others. I pulled them to safety as fast as I could." The Brothers quickly went behind the crate to see two Tenno sleeping peacefully. One of them was a Vauban and another one was a Mag. Both of them were lying in haphazard positions, proof that Alex had practically thrown them there.

"Where is the other one Alex?" asked Vivian. Alex replied with a confused look on his face, "These two were the only ones with me. I don't know about anyone else."

Vivian saw Oron looking at her. She silently nodded at him. They needed to find the other Tenno fast. Their window of escape was closing fast. Vivian confirmed that Alex now had enough strength to stand on his own and she quickly ran to help the other two. Dale stood by Vivian as she resuscitated the sleeping Tenno, while Oron went back to help Alex get up. After the Frost had put his helmet back on, Dale called the Lotus.

"We found three of them. How do we find the other Tenno?"

"Enemy chatter does not say anything about another Tenno, but the logs definitely say that there are 4 pods on this ship. I will try and cross refer-"

Dale's mind was suddenly overwhelmed with a cry for help. Wincing he looked around to see all the other Tenno cringe in discomfort. The intensity the words was shocking. Only one being, one warframe could create such an effect.

"Lotus," he interrupted her, "we received a mental cry for help. It has to be a Nyx."

"How could you know? What happened?"

Dale didn't respond for a moment. Another cry tore out through his mind, and this time he saw an image alongside it.

"I need to know where a room with a matching description is," said Dale. As he narrated the description to Lotus, Oron checked on the Gorgon and scavenged a few magazines from the bodies lying around.

He shouted out to Vivian and Dale. " I will start moving. Get the others to the ship fast. I'll find her."

As the Rhino started sprinting, Dale told him exactly where the room was. The Lotus had transferred a waypoint from Dale's map to his. He checked his bearings as another cry for help echoed in his mind._ I should be there in a minute. _An image flashed across his mind. She was hiding behind a crate shooting at them with a Kraken, and there were a lot of Grineer shooting back at her.

_Hang in there_, shouted Oron mentally, hoping that she might hear him. The Gorgon was out and ready. He picked up his pace to the point where he knew that slowing down would be very tough. As he reached her location he heard the gunfire. It seemed to come from the opposite side of the room, so he kicked down the door taking everyone by surprise.

Twenty Lancers had the lone Nyx pinned down behind a crate. By the looks of it, she'd been hit in the legs. Unable to move, she kept popping out and taking potshots at them. Without hesitating for a second, Oron spooled up the Gorgon and sprayed down the Grineer with lead. As the last body crumpled onto the floor, Oron ran up to the Nyx.

"Are you alright Sister?" he asked.

She hesitated for a second and then replied.

"They shot me in the legs. I...I..."

Oron placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. She was in shock. He needed to get her out of here as soon as possible.

"Don't worry, you will be alright soon. I need to get you out of here as fast as possible" Oron told the Nyx.

He helped the Nyx lift herself up. She tried to take a few steps but she fell. He caught her before she hit the ground. As he holstered the Gorgon, he received a transmission from Reese. He only had a few more minutes before the shuttle bay would become a warzone. The others had made it there and were fighting off the Grineer till Oron could reach there. He looked at the Nyx, who was panting with the effort of standing up.

"We need to hurry. You won't be able to support your own weight. May I lift you?" he asked her.

She tried to walk again, but the pain was too great. Oron noted that her suit had healed her tissue enough to stop her from bleeding out. After a few seconds, she replied.

"Yes."

He did not hesitate and lifted her up on both his hands. Holding her up in front of him, he began to run as fast as he could. The Nyx remained silent, looking at the various machinery and devices that dotted the rooms they were moving through. Oron knew that she needed to be distracted before she went further into shock.

"May I know your name?" he asked the Nyx.

That seemed to shake her off her reverie. She hesitated and replied.

"Rin. My name is Rin."

Oron nodded. Good, he thought, she's responding.

"Nice to meet you Rin. My name is Oron."

She nodded silently and went back to looking at her surroundings. Their path was eerily devoid of enemies. All enemies must be making a beeline for the shuttle bay, he assumed. Like moths to a lamp. Oron checked his map.

"It should be a straight shot from here to the shuttle," Oron said to Rin, "we should be there in a minute or so. How are you feeling now?" he asked her as he vaulted over some crates. He needed as much speed as he could get.

"I'm fine. The pain is gone now," said Rin.

Oron smiled inwardly. She was a strong one.

"That is good to know, Rin. We'll be able to provide you with proper medical attention very soon. Hold on till then."

Rin nodded and settled back into Oron's arms. As soon as they were a few rooms away from the shuttle, Oron covered her body with as much of his as possible. He checked to see if he was crushing her, but she seemed to realize what he was doing and complied.

To her, the world around them was flying by a a very high speed. That coupled with her dehydration made her extremely disoriented as she shook in the Rhino's arms. She saw as a silver skin appeared over his warframe, along with a few silver crystals around the heavily armoured parts of his warframe. _Iron skin._ She wondered how she knew that, having no recollection of ever hearing that word. Even Oron seemed alien to her, yet not so. Her confusion was abruptly put to an end as the entered the shuttle bay. A cacaphony of sounds echoed through the small room as dozens of Grineer were shooting at the shuttle, oblivious to the silver missile that was running through their ranks. As Oron knocked down and killed several Grineer with his sheer momentum, he saw Dale and Siren fighting from the shuttle's access hatch. Siren's bow was dispatching several Heavy Gunners while Dale sprayed down anyone who got too close to the shuttle. They were taking cover under a railing and that cover was rapidly diminishing. As Siren saw Oron running towards them, Siren screamed out at them.

"Hurry!"

Oron saw as the both of them jumped into the shuttle, bullets pinging off the surface much more frequently as there were no more hindrances between the Grineer and the shuttle. Within a few more seconds, Oron was leaping inside the hatch, Rin tightly holding onto him. The Mag closed the shuttle door and Reese lifted off with no hesitation. Everyone pressed themselves into their places as the shuttle encountered several Gs of force as Reese expertly maneuvered the shuttle to avoid all the incoming fire. Within a few seconds they had cleared the cargo bay. The Grineer did not have any means to close the bay in case of emergencies, leaving them with no resistance while escaping. By the time they sent fighters behind the fleeing Tenno, the shuttle would have cloaked and disappeared from radar for good. As the shuttle cleared the Dreadnought's scanner range, everyone relaxed.

Reese looked back at Oron, who was placing Rin down at the medical table. She seemed to be tired out.

"Thank the spirits you made it in time! A minute more and the shuttle's defences would have been compromised".

Oron nodded and spoke to everyone on the ship. " Is everyone alright?"

Dale, Vivian and Alex nodded. The Frost seemed to fare a lot better than when Oron last saw him. His scythe was sheathed on his back, the blade glinting from the med bay's lights. Oron looked at the Vauban and Mag. Both of them were sitting by the mess table, looking dazedly at the happenings around them.

"Vivian will have a look at you now Rin," said Oron to the still Nyx on the table, "she is very good at what she does. I will be back after I check on the others."

The Nyx nodded, and Oron went to go speak to the Vauban and the Mag.

I pity them, thought Oron as he sat next to them, witnessing all that minutes after waking up from cryostasis. Both of them looked at the hulking Silver form of the Rhino with some quite visible fear in the body language. They remained silent.

Oron took off his helmet, hoping that a face with expressions would be able to provide them with some comfort.

Deep brown eyes looked at them as Oron spoke with a smile.

"Welcome."


	4. Chapter 4

"I am the Lotus. I will be your guide. To ensure our success and your survival, you must understand the dire circumstances you all have awoken to."

All nine of them stood in the briefing room, watching the Lotus from the video screen. For security's sake, the Lotus had decided to interact with the Tenno via video only, stating that if she was compromised, all hope for remedying the future will be lost. The journey to the dojo had been filled with mostly silence. Almost everyone apart from Reese and Oron had managed to catch some shuteye. Dale looked around to scrutinize the newcomers. He and Oron had heard the very same speech from the Lotus almost a year ago. Back then, it was just the two of them. Then a few months later, Reese and Siren showed up. After them, came Vivian and Linzi. And now, they were here with four new comrades.

As the Lotus continued with her speech about the current state of affairs, Dale observed the newcomers. He recalled the names they had shared during the trip back. The Frost was called Alex. Dale noted that he was pretty normal looking, apart from his eyes. The pupils were an extremely light blue, so plae that they could be mistaken for white. Rin was the Nyx, and she now sat on a wheelchair. Vivian had patched her up, but the combined effect of the Grineer's armour piercing rounds and atrophy caused by the cryostasis meant that it would take her a few days to regain full use of her legs. She was pretty, but she seemed oddly detached from the happenings in the room.

_Odd, I wonder what's wrong? _The Mag was called Cerise, and she had requested to cover the lower half of her face. From what he'd noticed, she was very kind, but also very shy. She would soon talk with the others, of that Dale was sure. Starting trouble, his mother used to call it. He smiled inwardly at that memory and then looked at the Vauban. He was called Costin, and he was by far the youngest of the group. Possibly the youngest Tenno Dale had seen in his life. He couldn't have been older than 17, his features in transition between that of a boy and a man.

We make an odd collection, Dale summarized. Two battle hardened veterans, namely Oron and Reese. One pyromaniac, that being Linzi. One healer, that being Vivian. Siren being the demolition expert, and then there was himself, scout and stealthy supporter. And now the newcomers. I welcome them gladly, thought Dale. We can use all the help we get.

His reverie broke when Oron nudged his shoulder.

"You seem lost in thought," grinned Oron,."What happened?"

Dale nodded. "I was just appraising the newcomers. Something that bothers me is that they have not much recollection of the past."

"So you're worried about how they will fare in combat, and how they will cope with this new world?"

Dale nodded again. "Exactly. If they've lost everything, we're in a lot of trouble."

Oron placed a hand on his brother's shoulders. "Relax Dale. We can help, and that is all that matters."

Dale looked at his brother's eyes. Deep, dark eyes looked down from between a chiseled face. He sighed, and then nodded in agreement.

"We can always hope."

They remained silent for the remainder of the briefing, while the Lotus explained in detail each of the factions they were up against alongside with the motives each of them had.

After concluding her briefing, Lotus looked at Dale and Oron.

"Since you two are the most experienced here, I require you to train our new comrades and test their mettle. They need to be prepared for this world. It is far too different from the one they have come from."

Dale nodded. "We will train them tomorrow. Tonight, we'll give them time to rest and recuperate."

"Very well. I leave it to you," said the Lotus and the video display turned off. Dale noted that the others were looking at him. Vivian was smiling from the corner of her mouth. She knew that hew wasn't too comfortable in dealing with a sizable group of people, and she was eagerly expecting him to stutter. She saw him take a deep breath, his face clearly showing discomfort.

"Now I know that what the Lotus said might seem quite overwhelming to you and I agree. We were put through the very same briefing last year, when we were awoken. Please fell free to ask me or any of the others anything you might want to know, and we'll do our best to help you out."

Oron took the lead from this point, much to Dale's relief. "You are Tenno, and as expected from warriors such as us, we must fight to maintain the balance. Right now, we have two enemies, both of whom have been oppressing the innocent, and either enslaving or torturing them. As keepers of the balance, we must fight and hold back these powers to ensure that the innocent prevail. I understand that this might seem daunting, considering the relapse in your memories." He sighed, and the continued. "It is an unfortunate side effect of cryostasis, but all is not lost. We can still train and we can become what we were before. That's the part where me, Reese and Linzi come in."

Oron stopped talking as Costin raised his hand nervously. Oron nodded, a signal for the young man to continue.

"You all seem to have not lost your memories. Why is that? And even though we don't remember anything from the past, why does all you say seem familiar to us"

"We have lost our memories, but significantly lesser than you four. I have no sure answer for this, but I can always account it to the extra year you have spent in cryostasis to be the culprit."

Costin stood there deep in thought. Not expecting another interruption, Oron continued.

"I will teach you how to use your blades. Reese will train you to master your elements and manage your energy. Linzi is our expert on guns. She will supervise your training when she gets back from her mission. Any questions?"

Rin piped up. "If we're training tomorrow, what will we do for the rest of the day?"

Oron smiled, and opened the door to the room. "We eat, and celebrate the arrival of our new friends!"


	5. Chapter 5

They all stood in front of a large door. While their food was being prepared, Siren and Vivian wanted to show the newcomers around a bit of the recognized this door being the one to the hangar they had arrived in. Moments later, Oron confirmed his assumption.

"You may remember walking through this door when we arrived here. This is the shuttle hangar, able to house up to three shuttles at a time, excluding payloads and other equipment necessary. This room and the entire dojo is maintained by proxies developed personally by the Lotus."

Dale spoke up. "You may notice them once in a while, and I'd suggest keeping your distance. Those things can be quite...twitchy."

Oron chuckled and continued. "The hangar is where your Warframes are stored. It contains a repair station so that during standby time, your suits get fixed, and their energy stocks get replenished."

Oron led the others towards the armory next. He decided to push Rin's wheelchair. On her refusing his help, he simply said, "You've barely adjusted to moving around again. Leave this to me. You must be tired already."

Rin remained silent, but didn't argue any further. Oron smiled at her, and pushed her wheelchair.

Along the way, Costin observed the architecture of the dojo itself. Brutal simplicity, he concluded, noting the wires and many tubes running along the ceiling. The walls were made of some form of metal, but it was unlike any metal he had seen. It looked cold, but seemed warm to the touch. Noting his actions, Reese started talking.

"The Corpus built this ship. This is one of their abandoned research bases. The Lotus modified it into living quarters and a training facility a few years ago."

Costin was confused. From what the woman called Lotus had said, the Corpus were all about profit. Abandoning a vessel in such good condition seemed farfetched to him.

"Why did they abandon this ship?"

Reese shrugged. "No idea kid. No one knows why those boxheads do half the stuff they do. I don't bother about matters like that. If they shoot at me, I shoot back. Simple," he said with a savage grin.

They had reached the armory. Oron keyed in an access code, and the door opened with a small gust of air. The first thing Cerise saw was a green machine gun placed on a lit pedestal. She recognized it to be the gun Oron had retrieved from the last mission. He'd called it a _Gorgon_. She saw as a few tiny robots were crawling over it, inspecting cracks and repairing it as they moved.

Oron walked up to the gun. The rest of the room was dark. Underneath the pedestal, he flicked a switch which caused a series of lights to turn on. Alex was dumbfounded. Hundreds of weapons littered the room's walls and in some places, even the floor. The walls themselves were a pure white and seemed to be backlit, causing the guns to be nothing more than silhouettes. Vivian smiled at his reaction. Reminds me of my first time here, she thought.

Oron walked towards the Gorgon. While he was examining the robots' handiwork, he said "This is the safest room in the whole dojo. Under emergency situations, you all should run into here and gear up. You warframe ports will link to this room on the opposite wall. You should make a beeline for the shuttles after you suit up, unless told otherwise. Understand?"

The newcomers nodded. Oron smiled. "Next, I'll show you the Foundry. Follow me." He started walking deeper into the armory, pushing Rin's wheelchair along the way. "And Alex," he added, "you'll get a chance to pick your weapons soon. Stay patient till then."

Reese laughed at the look on Alex's face. He looked like a child in a toy store, being unable to buy anything he wanted. But Alex remained silent. I'll prove my worth to these guys, he thought.

They entered a small room with a single terminal and a large cylindrical chamber. The cylinder was vibrating slightly, and a few flashes of light seemed to appear from within it once in a while. Oron looked at Vivian. "Take the lead. You know more about the foundry than I do". Vivian nodded and walked up to the terminal. She keyed in a few codes, following which the cylinder started to open up from the bottom up. They were all greeted with a tank resting inside the cylinder. The tank had some sort of fluid inside which was churning violently with sparks and flashes of light.

"Now this thing is the foundry," said Vivian. "This is where you'll be able to build your weapons and improve your weapons, provided you have the schematics and raw materials of course. When you have all the required materials, simply add them to the foundry, and let it do it's thing."

"How does it build weapons?" asked Costin.

"Nano-scaled drones break down the raw materials and then stack them up in a pattern, just like a puzzle. The fluid inside the container is the catalyst used for speeding up the process. The drones are all linked together so that they can work with maximum precision efficiency and accuracy."

"So you're essentially growing weapons using schematics then?"

"Pretty much," grinned Vivian. "This tech dates back to before the Orokin Age, and in these times, this system seems to be the most predominant. Obviously our foundry has a bit more power behind it, since our schematics for weapons are a lot better, but the general procedure of weapon-crafting is similar throughout the system."

Alex piped up. "You mentioned that we can upgrade our weapons here. How do you do that?"

"Simple. You add the materials required to the foundry, and then add your weapon to foundry as well," she said, pointing to a slot on the right side of the tank, "using that slot".

"You upgrade your weapons in a few different ways. The nanites respond well to fusion cores, which is essentially a fuel source. The fusion cores increase the overall effectiveness of the nanites, which thereby increases the strength of their bonding process. That makes the weapon stronger. Then, there's mods that you can obtain which will also help you out. But let's leave that for later."

Reese nodded. "I'm hungry anyways. If we start talking about mods, we'll be here all night."

Siren grinned. Reese had been her squad-mate for several months now, and one thing she knew was that he hated mods. The concept of using chips to make weapons behave differently was an alien concept for him. But in his defense, his age was keeping him from moving with the times.

Vivian dropped the cylinder back down on the tank, dramatically reducing the amount of light in the room. "Let's go eat."

They all sat at the table chatting away. Warm food and safe shelter made the newcomers settle down and actually made Costin and Cerise open up. Both of them were getting to know Vivian and Dale, while Alex was deep in talk with Vivian and Reese. Siren was reading a book, humming a tune to herself. Oron was simply observing his new family. As their numbers grew, his worry kept increasing. _They are new to this world, and yet I'm forced to plunge them into this war. I need to ensure that they are protected. _

_\_He looked up to see Rin pushing her wheelchair away from the table. She looked around at the others. Seeing that none of them were paying attention, she simply pushed herself away towards the residential wing. Oron knew that something was wrong. Deciding to help her out, he got up. Dale looked across the table.

"Where are you going?"

Oron replied as he walked away. "I'm tired, so I thought I'd sleep early". _Why did I lie to him?_ Before he left the room, he turned around a raised his voice, immediately cutting the chatter. "Training starts tomorrow at 0900 hours. Get some sleep, you'll need it it."

With that, he turned around leaving them to continue with their conversations. He was happy to see that the newcomers had settled in. Downtime between missions was the hardest time, and having more friends would noticeably reduce the stress during those periods. He entered the residential wing. The wing was separated into upper and lower levels; the upper level had a balcony that looked down into the lower level's main hall. Both levels had 20 rooms together, each one being identical to the next. They had told the newcomers about which rooms they would be getting along with the access codes to their rooms.

Oron remembered Rin's room and he walked up to the door. He hesitated for a moment, but then knocked the door. He didn't get any response for nearly a minute. _She doesn't want to talk now, I guess_. Just as he was about to leave, the door opened up with a hiss, to show a confused Rin staring up at him.

"Oron...what are you doing here?"

He leaned back against a railing and calmly spoke.

"I just came here because I'm worried. Is there anything wrong Rin?"

She shook her head. "No, nothing's wrong. I'm just tired, that's all. That's why I thought I'd catch some sleep," she said with a smile. Oron could see the sadness she was trying to mask with her smile.

"Rin...I'm a friend. And I know that it's not just because you're tired. I'm here to help, so trust me. What's the matter?"

She hesitated, but the relented with a sigh. "I'd better be completely honest. Come on inside. This might take a while".

She turned her wheelchair around with some difficulty, btu stopped as Oron pushed her chair inside.

"Thanks".

"No worries," smiled Oron. She noticed that his smile was crooked to the left. But the thing that grabbed her attention the most were his eyes. They were deep and seemed to be filled with kindness. She somehow knew that she could trust him. As Oron settled down on a chair she played with a strand of her hair.

"I guess I should start off with something important".

Oron leaned back. "And that is?"

"I remember everything."


	6. Chapter 6

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" inquired Oron, his features clouded in confusion as Rin lifted herself off the wheelchair and sat on the bed.

She hesitated. "I...I didn't know if I could trust you and your friends. I still don't."

Oron leaned forward. Looking deep into her scared eyes, he said, "Rin, you must understand that I nor my friends will ever hurt you. You're safe with us."

Tears welled up in her eyes. "That's exactly what happened when I joined the Tenno before the war! And look what that led to!" Her voice had gone up in both volume and pitch. Oron was even more confused now.

"We promised to protect the system, and then when we did our job, we resorted to...to-" She broke down into sobs. Oron got off the chair to try and comfort her. _She's talking about the Collapse_, he thought. He sat next to her and put a hand across her shoulders.

"Easy, easy Rin. Don't cry. All of that is behind us now. We need to move on."

She looked at him, tears streaming down her face. "And how exactly am I supposed to do that? I wake up into a firefight, to later realize that the world I'm in is almost as bad as the world I escaped from!"

"I understand that Rin. But this is what our lives are meant for. Fighting for the innocent, and maintaining the Balance."

She was screaming now. "I want nothing to do with any more wars. They are just a means for all of us to end our lives meaninglessly, nothing more! I wanted to wake up to a beautiful world, where peace is abundant and our pasts will play no role in our futures. And look where we're at! A ragtag band of a dozen or so Tenno against two armies, two entire species!"

Oron silently listened as she spoke. _She needs to vent, and if this is how she opens up, so be it._

"I want peace Oron. I don't want to fight anymore! Not after what happened." Pained eyes looked back at Oron, pleading for salvation. He simply gave her a grave smile.

"I'm still trying to recover from the Collapse myself. I'll be honest Rin. When I stepped into the cryopod, I hoped that I would never wake up again. I just wanted it to end there. No more meaningless wars, no more painful losses, just silence and darkness. But unfortunately, I woke up, and my worst fears came to fruition."

He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts as he rubbed Rin's shuddering shoulders. _She's stopped crying. That's good._ He looked up at the ceiling.

"Every single day that I wake up, I regret everything I've done in my life. I've lost friends, family and every one of any significance to me so that I can maintain the Balance. I've almost come to hate it. Leaving the innocent to fend for themselves was something I was honestly contemplating about for a few months."

Rin looked at Oron more closely. His deep voice had gotten quieter, and his face clearly showed how much pain he was going through. He blinked a couple of times, and then looked back at her.

"But then I saw something," he said with his crooked smile,while she wiped the tears from her face. "Something that made me realize why I fight."

"What did you see?" she asked him.

"That's something I'm going to have to show you. Come on, let's go". He lifted her off the bed and onto the wheelchair, which he pushed out of the room. Rin remained silent as Oron pushed the wheelchair through the lower levels of the ship, thinking about how mentally strained all of them must have been after the Collapse. She was envious of Alex, Costin and Cerise. They had no recollections of the past, and that spared them from misery. She had gone through too much in the past, and she feared deeply that she might go through it again.

Oron was leading her through a narrow passage which seemed to be in much more disarray than the rest of the dojo. Pipes were leaking her and there, and large clumps of moss coated the bottom portions of the walls. This corridor was setting off a feeling of trepidation in her, but she trusted Oron, more than she trusted the others. They reached what seemed like a wall, but then Oron stepped in front of her and inserted a key into the wall. Not a card, she thought, but one made of actual metal. She'd heard of devices like that being used in ancient times, but she'd never seen one herself. Oron twisted the key around, following which a deep hiss seemed to come from the wall. He removed the key and stepped back as the wall raised into the ceiling. The sight before her left Rin in disbelief. Oron turned around and smiled. "This is what I saw."

He pushed Rin into a large and beautiful garden. She couldn't believe her eyes. This was the most beautiful place she had seen in her whole life. Grass grew everywhere, and flowers and trees were abundant. The room housing the garden was not much bigger than the residential wing itself, but the rolling landscapes and small hills seemed to make it feel otherworldly. The ceiling was a bright blue and virtual clouds seemed to roll across it. Sunlight seemed to emanate from between the clouds, and she experienced warmth from its rays. There were small streams dotting the landscape and she felt immediately at peace. All her worries melted away at the sheer beauty of the place.

It must have been obvious from her face, because Oron chuckled. "That was my exact reaction when I saw this place for the first time. I'm guessing you've never seen plants before?"

She shook her head while soaking in the feeling. "No. Apart from the white trees, none." She was overwhelmed with the beauty of this place. "Oron...this place is beautiful!"

He nodded in agreement. " The Corpus had built this place as a means to aid depressed troops. Decades of fighting can make people lose morale. This was a place of peace and beauty. And to us, this is a place of spiritual healing."

He knelt down so that he was on eye level with Rin. He looked into her eyes. "I realized that I fight for this," he said pointing at this garden. "For places like this, that harbour peace and act as sanctuary for many a broken soul. I fight for making sure that such beauty is never lost, because if I don't, we're doomed for eternity."

"I am a man of peace, Rin. I joined the Tenno because I wanted to ensure that I make the world a better and peaceful place for the future. I have failed once already, which has put me in this situation. I repent for my failure every single day of my existence, and I plan to not fail again."

He got up and pushed Rin around a path, allowing her to see more of this garden. "People deserve a world of peace, a world where families can see their young prosper and a world where fathers do not have to bury their sons. I realized that I must fight for such a world, because I need to make the future better."

"I know that you might not agree with my words," he continued, "but I believe in this. The future is the key, and our sacrifices will count for a major change in that future". She looked back to seem him smiling at his surroundings. He was truly at peace; no signs of sorrow remained on his angular face. He looked down at her.

"That is why I fight."

Rin remained silent, and Oron continued to push her around the path. They stopped by a small meadow which had red roses growing amidst lilies and marigolds. Rin leaned down to see one closely. Oron lifted her off the wheelchair and gently sat her down on the grass. Seconds later he also sat next to her. They were both partially sheltered by a tree, it's roots splayed into the ground, and it's leaf laden branches providing a cool place for them to sit.

"Let's sit here for a while. I like this spot the most."

She nodded in agreement. She felt good here, happy that she'd seen something this beautiful in such a hopeless world. She corrected herself internally. The fact that this garden still exists was proof enough that there was still hope, that there was still light amidst the darkness.

Oron looked at her. "Do you like this place?"

She smiled back at him. "This is a beautiful place Oron. Thanks for showing this to me."

With that crooked smile, he replied. "The pleasure was mine Rin. Here." he said, fishing another key from a pocket on his suit. "Keep this for yourself."

She took the key from his hands and examined it. It was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. "What is this for?"

"You can use this key to enter the garden whenever you want. Whenever you feel down about something, make your way here."

She smiled at him. He noticed how beautiful her smile was when she was at peace. He looked back at the sky, and simply soaked in the sunlight. They both sat there for a long time silently collecting their thoughts and reminiscing their past actions.

Rin looked at Oron. "I still stick to what I said about me not wanting to fight. But what you said struck a chord deep inside. I remember the first thing I thought of when I joined the Tenno. I thought that I would protect my family from evil and make sure they live in peace. I never expected things to turn out that way after the Sentients were gone."

Oron nodded. "Neither did I. But the decision made by us was necessary". He twirled a blade of grass in between his fingers as he spoke. "We can never forsake our past actions or erase the blood on our hands, but with time, we can at least make them fade away from our consciences."

He got up, and dusted off strands of grass that clung to his suit. "It's best we send you off to sleep. Tomorrow's a pretty big day, and if you can move around again, you can join us in training."

He lifted Rin and sat her down on the wheelchair again, and the two of them made their way back to Rin's room. On the way, they both were making small talk, which Rin really enjoyed. It was nice to have a relaxed conversation with somebody else. She hadn't had the chance to do so for a very long time.

As Rin sat on her bed, Oron told her, "I respect your choice if you still do not wish to fight. I completely understand if you do make that choice. If you want, we can introduce you to the Deimos colony. They're a friendly group of humans, and I'm sure that they would gladly accept you. Life will be hard, but peaceful. If you make this choice, you won't have to fight again, and we won't hold you responsible for anything."

He got up, and just before he was about to walk out of the door, he said "and remember, we're all your friends. When you're in need of help or company, we will all be there for you."

Smiling, he made to turn off the lights in the room. Before he did, he had one last look at Rin. She looked back at him, absently outlining the shape of the key with her fingers.

"Good night Rin," said Oron as he turned off the lights. 'Sleep well."

As the door closed, Rin quietly spoke to herself. "Good night..."


	7. Chapter 7

Rin woke up earlier than she had to. Gingerly she tried standing on her own feet. Vivian had done a good job; she felt absolutely no pain in her legs. Her accelerated healing coupled with Vivian's ministrations had fixed the atrophy quite easily, and the bullet wound was almost completely closed. Happily, she freshened up and decided to take a walk outside. She checked the clock on her room. The digital readout said that she had another hour or so before training started. _I guess I'll just explore till then_, she thought to herself.

The ship was quiet, apart from the creaks of metal and the constant hum of machinery. The more the architecture she saw, the more intrigued she was about the Corpus. From the information she was given, the Corpus seemed to be at the pinnacle of human evolution, in terms of technology at least. _Similar to the Orokin. _She smiled at the similar situations she was faced with. Before there were the Orokin against the Sentients, now it's the Corpus against the Grineer. Both with their own goals, and their own ways of bringing those goals to fruition.

As she headed in the general direction of the armoury, she saw Alex leaning against the wall, deep in thought. On hearing her come up to him, he looked up.

"Hey! How are your legs now?" he asked.

"Working perfectly!" she said with a smile. "I guess I won't be needing that damn wheelchair anymore."

Alex grinned. "Why up so early?"

Rin leaned against a railing opposite to him. "I might ask you the same."

Alex sighed. "Couldn't sleep. I spent the whole night trying to remember something, anything from the past."

Rin gave an encouraging smile. "Don't force it on yourself. Trust me, let it come back on its own. You're just going to have to give it some more time."

Alex nodded. "I hope so. I hate being unable to remember. Everything seems to be there...I can almost see it, but when I get close it just...disappears."

"I know how you feel. It's happened to me before."

"Oh. When?"

"During the War. I fell about a 100 or so feet down a cliff. Rather," she added with a grimace, "I was thrown down it."

"Wait...how do you remember that?"

Rin looked embarrassed. "I lied to all of you about not remembering."

"Why?"

"I didn't know if I could trust you."

Alex nodded. "Fair enough. But considering the fact that you're telling me now means..."

"I trust you."

Alex smiled and stayed silent for a moment. "How the hell did you survive that fall?"

Rin shrugged. "No idea. It was just pure luck. I was knocked out cold, and couldn't remember anything for two weeks after the fall. Then it all came back to me."

Alex simply kept looking at the ground.

"Hey," asked Rin, "what's the matter?"

"I just think that this might be a bit too much for us to fight. I mean, we're up against two entire armies. 10 of us against all of them doesn't seem like fair odds."

"Believe me when I say this, but back then, we were outnumbered as well. That's our specialty as Tenno. We always win when we're least expected to."

Alex grimaced. "I'll reserve judgment until I know more about these guys. For all we know they've got large numbers of troops to compensate for most of them being trash."

Rin laughed. "That's one way to look at it."

They both looked around when they heard a greeting, to see Cerise, Costin and Dale walking towards them.

"You two slept well?" inquired Dale as they finished greeting one another.

"None of us did. Way too much crap for us to digest in one day," said Alex. The others nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry about it. The first couple of days are the most brutal. Anyways, we need to go to the hangar and the armoury."

"Why?" asked Cerise.

Dale turned around. "Training. You need your warframe and a weapon of your choice."

Alex clapped his hands together in glee. "Let's get going!"

Costin smiled at his comrade's excitement. They started walking at a brisk pace, frequently peppering Dale with questions. The Loki tried answering as many as he could, but by the time they'd reached the hangar, Dale was exhausted of answers.

"Calm down! Even if I told you any more, you wouldn't understand, so for the sake of efficiency and my sanity, stop with the questions!"

Everyone shared a good laugh at his frustration as they got into their warframes.

Costin felt a tingle as the biomechanical armour linked with his nervous system, making him one with his Warframe. He looked around to see the others. All of them had their warframes on, and now that they weren't being shot at, Costin examined his comrades carefully.

Cerise's warframe was coloured a light pink with blue flecks of paint here and there. _Not exactly tactical, but it does suit her personality_, he thought. Alex's warframe was the most impressive here. He stood six feet tall, gold trim pieces adorning the dark brown body. Costin noticed small vents on the sides, but nothing was being released. Alex flexed his arms, testing the joining. Satisfied that it had gone well, he walked towards the hangar door and waited for the others. Rin's warframe was a pleasing blue with black accents in certain parts of it. As she flexed inside her frame, she felt relieved being inside her Nyx. It was like a second home, one of the safest places she could be in.

She saw the Vauban deep in thought. She waved a hand in front of his helmet to grab his attention.

"Hey!"

Costin replied with a startled jerk. "Sorry, I was examining everyone's suits."

Dale chuckled as he stepped out of his terminal. The Loki's black armour was inscribed with runes near his shoulder and left thigh. Costin looked down at the runes.

_The kid's really inquisitive_. "Deceive but don't be deceived. That's what the inscription says," he told Costin before he asked.

The Vauban nodded and walked off to stand with Alex. Both Dale and Rin noticed that his movement were stiff.

"He's not used to his frame much," said Rin.

"He's a rookie. I don't think he's had much combat experience."

Rin looked at him. "Who in the right mind would make a child fight in the war?"

Dale sighed as they both walked towards the hangar exit. "Desperate times made us take desperate measures. Costin's proof of that."

Cerise seemed a lot more happier now that she was inside her warframe. She levitated a hairpin above her palm and happily hummed a tune, making the pin wobble with the rhythm. Dale was curious about something.

"How do you know to control your powers if you have no recollection of training?"

The pin dropped back into her open palm as her attention wavered. "I don't know. It's strange. I remember bits and pieces of things, but nothing significant. I remember how to move around and control my frame but I don't remember how I learned that in the first place."

"Pretty much the same thing I'm going through," said Alex. "Sh*t's confusing me to no end."

Dale was perplexed. Selective memory loss wasn't something he was used to witnessing. The only time he'd seen this happen before was in a survivor of a Sentient Praetorian attack. Those beings had the ability to paralyze their enemies be releasing toxins that terminated all nerve impulses, essentially making any organic beings into bags of unarmed flesh. The side effect of the toxin apart from paralysis was that the brain was unable to retrieve memories from random segments of the brain. _But then again, the three of them had the same kind of memory gaps. _

"Do you remember anything right before you were put into cryostasis?" he asked.

All of them shook their heads except Rin. "I remember entering the pod after the Pact was signed. We'd finished our duties and were assigned to stasis immediately."

Dale was even more confused by this. _So Rin wasn't exposed to a Praetorian before cryostasis, and she's retained her memories. But how can I be sure if the others did? If they were, then they would have had to be put into stasis months before the Collapse, before we'd wiped out the Sentients. _He cleared his throat.

"I'm going to need some more time before I can try to figure out what caused this memory loss. The only consolation you all can receive now is that since you've retained your combat experience, we won't need to start from the basics. But before sending you off to complete assignments, we need to see if you're up to match. So for now, follow me to the armoury."

As the group walked, Dale continued. "Oron is our most experienced close quarters fighter. You will never meet a swordsman greater than him in your lives, and I'm sure of that. He might be modest about it, but trust me when I say this, his prowess is legendary. You'll begin hand to hand training with him. After lunch, Reese will train you to manipulate your powers and strengthen them. Linzi should be back tomorrow, so you'll be able to learn how to use rifles and ranged weapons when she's back."

"Who's Linzi?" asked Costin.

"She's an Ember pilot. Works wonders with guns of all kinds. She's gone out for a supply run to Deimos, and should be back tomorrow."

They had reached the armoury. Dale told them to pick up an melee weapon they wanted. Alex made a beeling straight for his Reaper Prime. The massive scythe glinted as he tested its weight with a few swings. Satisfied with it, the Frost swung the scythe and locked it into place on his back. Costin went for a longsword and Cerise picked up the kogake, guantlets that attached to both hands and feet for creating ingeneous kickboxing attacks. Rin opted to use the Orthos polearm. She liked the range it gave her, and since she didn't know much about how Oron fought, she decided to play defensively.

Dale grinned inwardly at her choice. _Smart choice, keeping your distance_. He looked at the others and their weapons. _This is going to be interesting._

He himself picked up two weapons. One of them were his dual ethers, while the other one was a simple staff called a Bo. Alex noticed that he had two weapons with him.

"Why two?"

"One for me, and one for Oron."

Alex nodded and the group filed out. Within a few minutes they reached the training room. On walking inside they were greeted to a sight that terrified Costin. The Volt and the Rhino were locked in what seemed to be mortal combat, both their blades creating sparks from the impacts. Even with her trained eye Rin wasn't able to see clearly. She was used to feats that required exceptional prowess but the fight she was spectating was on another plane altogether. Oron was swinging a massive sword around with powerful yet graceful movements, deflecting rapid attacks that Reese was throwing at him with dual daggers. The Fangs glinted as Reese used his augmented speed to try and break Oron's defenses. But the Volt was outmatched and he knew it. Rin saw as the battle shifted towards Oron's favour. Bolts of lightning blazed out from Reese's outstretched arms as rage started to cloud his senses. Oron simply shrugged off the barrage of attacks and swung with his Gram. The blade came crashing down, shattering the daggers. Reese jumped out of the way to avoid getting hit, but Oron had predicted his movements and reciprocated. Before he knew it, the giant blade was pointed at his neck, and he had nowhere to go.

"Surrender?" asked Oron.

The Volt nodded, and Oron offered his hand to help him up. Reese grabbed hold of it and pulled himself up. He threw the useless daggers on the ground in frustration. Only then did they notice the others watching the fighting. The protective field around the dueling arena was lowered and they walked up to them. Oron removed his helmet and greeted them with a wave, while Reese removed his helmet and coughed violently. Oron looked at him.

"You okay, old man?" he asked with a cheeky grin.

Reese scowled. "Don't write me off yet kid. This just wasn't a good day for me."

Oron laughed heartily. "Relax brother, you fought well. You should be proud."

Reese stalked off towards the observation area. "Just you wait, I'm going to wipe that smirk off of your face," he called out behind him. That did little to remove Oron's smile.

He turned around again to talk to the newcomers.

"Reese doesn't like losing too much. So trust me, don't pester him with question now, or he'll blast you with some more lightning," he said with a chuckle.

Dale joined him in laughter. "You should know, you've had firsthand experience." Oron had made the grave mistake of calling Reese 'old man' after he'd lost a fight. The Volt was furious, and Oron smelled of burnt hair for several days after. Rin admired how close the brothers seemed to be. Seeing them reminded her of her brother. She missed him.

As the laughter died down, Oron looked at them and the collection of weapons they had chosen. "Risky choices," said Oron pointing at the weapons, "but don't worry about it. Today session is just to get you into the groove of combat once again."

He nodded at Dale, who tossed the staff to him. Oron caught the Bo and walked to the centre of the arena. He gestured the others to follow him and stand opposite to him. Once their four of them were positioned correctly, Dale activated the protective shields around the arena and went to sit by Reese.

The Volt acknowledged his presence with a curt nod. "These kids are going to get their asses handed to them."

Dale laughed as he removed his helmet. "That they are. But the question is, by how much?"

Reese shrugged and looked at the group. Dale turned his gaze to them once Oron had started talking.

"Do you know why we work in groups of four?" was the first thing he asked them.

Met with silence, he replied. "Four is a balanced number. One for each side of the compass. Four is just the right number to protect an innocent from all directions. We fight as a cell of four because we watch each others' backs, protecting our own as we protect those in need."

"Each one of you has something that the enemy has. A link to one another, a link that surpasses all forms of communication. You as a group have the ability to link your minds, your senses and your responses, making the cell fight as a whole. Today's lesson will be to reawaken and strengthen this link."

"Today's lesson," he said while putting on his helmet, "is to kill me."


	8. Chapter 8

"Kill you? What the hell do you mean by that?" asked a confused Alex.

"Exactly what I said. I want the four of you to work together and kill me," replied the Rhino. "Or at least try to."

Rin readied her Orthos. The bladed staff was held in front of her defensively. From what she'd seen, Oron was a close distance fighter, and an extremely good one at that. She knew that she need to keep him at bay at all costs.

"The aim of this exercise is for you four to master the neural link. You all possess the ability to form it, and I want the four of you to use your minds in unison to try and fight me. I want you to try and establish the link now."

Rin, being a Nyx, found that she could establish the link with relative ease. She sensed the consciences of the others, and tentatively reached out towards them. She decided to be the conduit for the link, considering that she still knew how to establish it. Over time, the others would learn how to strengthen the link themselves to the point that making the link becomes second nature. The first person she made with contact with was Alex. The very first thing she felt was anger. He was riled up, eager for a fight.

_Calm your mind Alex...Keep your emotions in check._

_Rin? How did you...?_

_I've linked my mind to yours. Focus on calming yourself. The others will join us soon._

She reached out to Cerise next. The Mag was happy that she was learning something new. Immediately after linking with her, she started chattering happily.

_This feels so weird, but it's so much fun._

_Pipe down Cerise. Focus on the fight._

_Alex, relax. We need to take it slowly. We don't know Oron's fighting style._

Costin was last. He initially shied away from Rin's advances, but soon established the link.

_Um...Can you hear me?_

_It's your thoughts. We can always hear you._

_Heh. So don't think dirty thoughts kiddo!_

Rin sighed. Three entirely different personalities. How was she supposed to work together with them? She looked at Oron again. The Rhino was standing still, the staff held loosely in his right hand.

_I think he favours his right hand._

_I thought the same. His right arm had the stronger swings against Reese._

_If that's the case, we need to try and attack his left._

She received mental affirmation from the others. "Oron," she said out loud, "we're ready."

The Rhino nodded. "Begin."

Rin was taken aback as Alex darted forward the instant the fight started. The massive scythe swung at Oron's neck with his full force. With shocking speed, the Bo struck against the scythe, altering it's path while simultaneously striking Alex in the chest. She heard a loud crack and she saw the Frost thrown backwards, his scythe flew backwards and landed a few feet behind him. Oron swung the staff around and calmly stood in his previous pose. She sensed Alex's pain through the link.

_Son of a bi**h hits hard! _He got up and grabbed his scythe.

_And fast. Why did you rush him?_

_Blitz attack. Thought I'd rush and take him by surprise._

_That won't work. He's ready for ambush attacks. We need to split up and attack at different times._

Costin was right, she thought. Oron was too skilled to get surprised by head on attacks. She thought about the weapons they had at their disposal. But before she could come up with a strategy, Cerise started explaining her plan.

_Alex has the strength. He should attack last. I have the shortest range but I can also attack the fastest. I'll lead the assault. Costin can dart in and out with his sword. Rin, you cover us when we're vulnerable._

Costin was impressed with the plan. Within a span of a few seconds, Cerise had come up with a strategy that used their respective strengths. Her peaceful demeanor belied her tactical thoughts. He needed to think faster. With a plan devised, the group got into formation. Over at the stands, Dale smiled.

"They're learning fast."

Reese nodded. "I'm impressed. These kids might actually be a bit of a worry."

Dale leaned back. "Maybe."

The four of them got into a delta formation, with Rin at the centre. Alex and Costin were on both sides of her and Cerise was in the front.

_3...2...1_

_GO!_

They rushed forwards almost at the same time, with Cerise leading the assault with a flurry of punches and kicks. She didn't know how she knew these moves, but she decided to trust her own instincts. Oron was very evasive, dodging and parrying every single blow she tried to land. Rin tried to maintain the link as the assault progressed, but Cerise was too focused on landing a hit on Oron. Within a few seconds the link broke between them and Cerise was on her own.

Oron noticed that Cerise was moving independently. She's not able to maintain the link. He performed a complicated series of movements, using the staff as an extension of his body. It was now Cerise's turn to dodge his hits. But because he had the advantage of range, she ended up landing on her back after he'd tripped her over with a low sweeping blow.

Cursing, she got up and jumped back. Alex and Costin immediately jumped in front of her, viciously attacking Oron with their weapons. Rin was amazed at the Rhino's dexterity. Despite his massive bulk, Oron appeared to be dancing, elegantly dodging all the blows they were attempting to hit him with.

Rin tried her best to cover their blind spots with her Orthos, but the disconnect between them did nothing to solve the issue. Within a few minutes, all of them were on the floor, their bodies sore from all the blows they had received from Oron. The Rhino was untouched. He walked forwards, offering a hand to each one of them. Alex was very angry and Rin was very disappointed.

"Well...that was a good start," said Oron as he removed his helmet. They did likewise. "You managed to establish the link, although I'm assuming it was Rin who made the link secure?"

She nodded. "I just wanted to give them a feel for what they should be doing."

He nodded. "Fair enough." The motion must have shown on their faces, because he immediately smiled. "Don't worry about failing this challenge. I'm genuinely impressed by how quick you all came up with a plan of attack against me. We'll keep training every day, and soon this exercise might seem trivial."

He lowered the protective barrier around the arena, following which he gestured Reese and Dale to come up to them. "We also need to train you to fight with adequate posture and movements. Dale should be able to help you with that."

The old Volt stood readily next to Oron. "You kids did well today. Better than we expected. But the true test of your skills starts now," he said with an evil grin.

"Reese, wait," said a voice. The all turned towards the door to see Vivian walk up to them. She was wearing a casual jumpsuit, her auburn hair bouncing against her shoulders as she walked quickly towards them.

"Hey Vivian. What do you need?"

"The Lotus wishes to speak to Dale and Rin. Siren's waiting in the briefing room."

"Me?" asked Rin. "Why me?"

Vivian shrugged her shoulders. "Beats me. I'm sure it must be something minor. Don't worry about it."

Oron nodded at her with an encouraging smile.

"Rin, follow me. Let's go see her quick so that we can get back to fighting," said Dale with a grin.

She followed him outside the room, towards the same room as yesterday. Vivian followed them.

"I wonder what she wants today?" said Dale, thinking out aloud.

"No idea. Who knows what she wants," said Vivian.

As they walked past the medical hall, Vivian bid them farewell, saying that she had some supplies she needed to sort through. Being the only medically qualified person on the station, she was tasked with ensuring that the had sufficient stocks of medical supplies at all times.

Rin decided to keep quiet. Something about that woman didn't feel right to her. She'd grown accustomed to trusting her gut, as the humans used to say. _What a weird phrase._ It would help ease her suspicions if she at least showed her damn face completely.

When they entered the room, she saw Siren leaning against a wall, humming a merry tune. The Banshee smiled when she saw her come through and waved a hand in greeting. Rin waved back as she settled down on a chair. Dale walked up to the terminal and activated the feed. The face of the Lotus hovered above them.

"Ah Tenno. Good, you're all here. I have an assignment that I need you three to complete for me."


	9. Chapter 9

"What did she want?" asked Oron, after the three of them had entered the training room again. Rin was surprised to see Alex knocked out, lying on the floor with Reese looking down at him. He noticed her concerned gaze, and simply chuckled.

"Idiot pushed himself to the limit. Don't you worry, he'll be fine."

Dale smirked at this. Reese was known to be brutal in his training regime. _A few more days and Alex's true potential would show._ He looked back at his brother.

"She wants us to do a recon run of a Corpus station. And she wants Rin to join us as well."

"Why doesn't she just send a recon team herself? And why Rin? She's not fully trained yet."

Dale shrugged. "She said that her teams have their hands full now, so she needs our help. As for Rin," he said looking at her directly, "it's up to her to decide."

They all looked at Rin, who was nervously drumming her fingers on her helmet. She was worried that she wasn't experienced enough. _Hell, I'm definitely not experienced enough. _She must have looked really nervous, because Siren placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Relax. Dale and I are there to guide you. Besides," she said with a happy smile, "this should be a fun field trip."

Oron removed his helmet. His angular features were coated in sweat, and his short hair was plastered on his face. "She's right," he said, "as long as you're with Dale and Siren, you should be fine. They're our group recon experts anyways."

Reese walked up to them. "Kid, let me teach you a couple of things about those boxheads okay? Maybe knowing more about them should help you clear your worry and make up your mind."

Rin nodded, while Dale told the rest of the group that he and Siren would go and prepare their gear for the mission. He gave her a reassuring smile and said, "meet us at the shuttle bay. I'm sure Siren might want to calibrate our stealth systems before we start anyways."

The both of them left and Rin was left alone with Reese and Oron. Costin and Cerise had volunteered to take the unconscious Alex to his room.

Reese sat himself down on a bench before taking a deep breath.

"So, the Corpus. I'll keep the facts pretty short, just enough for you right now. They're a merchant guild with insane control of the system. Lots of credits means lots of power, and with a lot of power comes a lot of evil. They capture innocent civilians from human camps and indoctrinate them into become their troops. We call them crewmen, and that's where they get the name boxheads. A vast majority of crewmen are actually civilians who've been indoctrinated."

Seeing the horrified look on Rin's face, he nodded gruffly. "Brutal, barbaric and heartless. Three words to describe the Corpus. Don't have any mercy though, kill them if you need to. The ones who have been indoctrinated are a lost cause. We tried our very best to help them initially, but the Corpus implant a bunch of failsafes into their victims; tampering with any of which causes them to shut down both mentally and physically."

Oron cracked his knuckes as he added to Reese's information. "The Corpus also use robotic proxies to augment their troops. Having a vast number of resources means that they can have expendable robots at their disposal. We've given them the moniker 'moas' because of the way they look."

The word was quite familiar to Rin. She had read about ancient flightless birds who had massive legs. She paid close attention when Oron continued.

"Moas generally are released from storage bays throughout the station. Because the place you're going to recon is a station, you should expect a very large amount of moas in storage. So it becomes extremely necessary to remain stealthy."

Reese jumped in. "Enough of that. Let's get to how you can kill those sons of bitches." Oron smiled. Reese loved to kill the Corpus. He knew that his friend hated their practices and regimes with a vengeance.

"Crewmen have electrical circuitry in their environmental suits, and the moas as you'd expect have a lot of circuitry as well. So the best bet for you is to use magnetic rounds. They'll screw up the circuitry and make the moas go haywire, whilst the crewmen will have no protection whatsoever from their kinetic shielding."

Reese got up. "That should be about it. Don't worry, if this is a recon mission, you shouldn't even have to fire a single round." He started walking off to the armoury. "Meet me at the shuttle bay in fifteen minutes, I'll get a good loadout set up for you."

Rin breathed a sigh of relief. Reese had cleared a significant bit of her worry. Now she at least knew a little bit about what she was heading into. Oron sat next to her. Carefully placing his helmet on the bench, he looked at her.

"So, are you still worried?"

She nodded. "Not as much as I was. But I still am."

He chuckled. "You'll do fine. Besides," he said with a theatrical voice, "you know how to fight."

Rin looked at him with an annoyed expression. "You kicked our asses out there!" to which Oron laughed hard. After his laughing died down, he noticed that she looked disappointed. _She must have taken the training seriously_. "Hey, I saw your style out there. Perfect balance between offense and defense. But your main issue was that you were trying to protect everybody except yourself. Now that is quite noble of you, but frankly, you just need to protect yourself."

She sighed. "I was just trying to make them work together. The link was a disaster. The three of them have contrasting personalities, and I couldn't do much after they all started attacking you simultaneously." She realized that her voice had gone up an octave and her speech had become faster.

Oron just looked at her with his goofy smile. She felt her heart rate drop immediately. "Don't worry yourself about it too much. They will learn. You've got the experience they don't so you should hone yours separately. It's our job to make them on par with us, even superior if possible. You need to focus on acclimatizing with the world as it is now. A clean start."

He gave her a reassuring pat on her back. "Besides, if you fight as well as I think you do, I might have to watch out!" She smiled at him gratefully. He seemed to know how to cheer her up all the time.

He got up and held his helmet under his arm. "Come on, we'd best get you to the shuttle."

She got up and walked with him. As they neared the hangar, she looked at him. "Hey Oron."

"Yeah?"

"About yesterday...I've decided to stay."

He looked very happy about it. "That's great! I'm really glad!"

He wished her good luck as she was going to walk into the hangar. She waved back, and odd feeling in her stomach. _Was she falling for Oron?_

She brushed the thought away. _Ridiculous._

* * *

The constant hum from the shuttle allowed Rin's mind to wander. It had been a few hours since they left the dojo and Rin was seriously contemplating whether she made the right decision by staying with the Tenno. _Obviously_, one part of her mind told her,_ who else would you go to? You're not human, and you wouldn't have fitted in with the colony at Deimos anyways._ She totally agreed with this, but another part of her mind made a valid point as well. _Do you really want to go through the horrors of war again?_ She reflected upon this question for most the the journey so far. Did she? Was she even ready to face enemies again?

Realizing that having two minds about something would just give her headache, she quelled her thoughts, with the conclusion that she'd live with whatever happens from now on. She looked around the shuttle. It was a cramped little place, with minimal segregation between zones such as the cockpit and the small sick bay. Siren was sitting on a small chair with her knees bent up to her chest, reading a book with a peaceful expression on her face.

Dale had decided to clean his rifle, something which he'd neglected to do ever since their last mission. A myriad of parts were neatly placed on the table as Dale was focusing on rebuilding his assault rifle. She looked at the equipment rack near the shuttle door. Reese had outfitted with with a suppressed Latron. The semi automatic rifle gleamed from the lights in the shuttle, next to her sword. She asked Reese why she needed a sword if they were going for a recon mission. His response had been short but adequate. "Better safe than dead".

The Skana was safely secured in a sheath, next to the weapons the others had brought along with them. Siren had gone for her Paris and a pair of Latos as her secondaries. Dale had his Braton and his Akboltos. She looked down at the ornate revolver in her hands. Oron had given it to her before the shuttle had taken off. His favorite sidearm. This baby packs a hell of a punch. Use it safely. She admired the craftsman ship of the weapon and she enjoyed listening to the ratcheting sound it made when she spun the chamber. _I see why Oron likes this weapon. _

She decided to pass some time by talking to Siren. She was really curious about the Banshee, and didn't have much of a chance to talk to her ever since they'd arrived in the dojo.

"Hey Siren," she started. Dale looked up for a second, and then went back to working on his gun.

She looked up with a smile. "Hey Rin? What do you need?"

"Nothing, nothing at all. I was just curious, what exactly are you reading?"

She held up her book. "It's a collection of poems. It's pretty rare to find a book made of paper nowadays. So I'm just reveling in the experience."

"That sounds fun. Who wrote the poems?"

"Many people. And the funny thing is, all of them were written after the Collapse."

"So that means-"

Siren happily nodded. "Art survived even after all these centuries. You should visit the colonies, Rin. They're wonderful places to be in."

Rin started to get a feel for what sort of person Siren was. "So you like reading?" she inquired.

The Banshee nodded. "I like to read and sing when I'm not sniping."

Dale chuckled. "I can attest to the fact that she's good in all three of those fields." He'd finished assembling his rifle, and went to the equipment rack to secure it. "Especially the sniping part."

Siren blushed. "Oh come on, I'm not that great."

"On the contrary Siren, you're the best damn sniper I've ever seen," said Dale with a serious face. "Trust me Rin, she's just being modest. We're blessed to have her on our team."

Siren had turned brick red with embarrassment, much to the Loki's amusement. "What about you Rin?" he asked her. "What are your hobbies?"

"Oh me? I...I like drawing, it keeps me occupied."

Siren was glad that they had changed to topic. "You need to show us a few of your pieces!"

Rin agreed. "I promise you'll be the first person to know when I make one."

Siren smiled happily and returned to reading her book. Rin looked at Dale, who was looking outside the small viewport. "What about you Dale?"

He looked at her. "I like playing chess and getting drunk. Preferably both," he said with a sly smile.

Rin laughed. She wasn't sure if he was being serious or not. She relayed her question to him.

"He's serious alright," Siren deadpanned. "Tries to get drunk every time we go for a supply run".

"Now, now Siren," he joked. "I only get drunk when I know we have nothing to worry about. It's all harmless fun."

She glared at him. "Only fun for you. I'm left behind to clean up the remnants of your stomach." Dale roared with laughter. He knew that Siren hated him getting drunk since it was generally she who had to team up with him, and because he couldn't exactly hold his alcohol, she had to clean up after him almost all the time.

Rin couldn't help but smile at the interaction between the two. Dale was the cheerful and cheeky trickster while Siren was the calm, composed sniper. _Polar opposites._

Their fun moment was put to a stop when a light alarm started ringing. Dale got up and walked to the cockpit. "We're close," he said. "Let's gear up."

The three of them were ready in less than five minutes. Rin could see their destination through their cockpit window. The massive station was several minutes away and yet it seemed to dominate the view. She looked back inside the shuttle as Dale started to talk.

"Okay, so here's some information. The station we're supposed to recon," he pointed his thumb towards their destination, "is called the Thebe Exploratory Station. Crew size of two hundred. Largest research station on this side of the asteroid belt. They perform genetic experimentation here and create systems to update the indoctrination failsafes. Our mission is to recon their genetics division and attempt to collect data from any of the terminals there."

"How do we recon the place?"

"Air vents. That's the only section of the ship that isn't watched with a camera."

Siren nodded.

"Now," said Dale, "we need to try and not kill anyone on this ship. The Lotus, as you know, mentioned that each crew member has a transmitter that emits a pulse when they are alive. If any crew member is killed, there will be a station-wide alert, and our mission will be compromised."

Rin nodded. And she put on her helmet. Once her helmet was secured in place, she saw a heads up display appear on her visor. She heard Dale's voice over the comms unit.

"You hear me?"

"Roger," said Rin followed by a "yes" from Siren.

"Good. I had a comms unit failure in the last mission. Good to know it got fixed."

The three of them waited patiently as the shuttle approached the massive station. When they were a few thousand metres out, Dale took over the controls and approached it from the darker section of the station, effectively making tem invisible to any observers. He guided the stealthy shuttle to a seeming clear expanse of metal on the hull of the station and landed it there. He got up and pressed a button on the console. The ship automatically cut a small hole on the side of the ship, emitting a small range electromagnetic pulse as it did so so as to not alert the crewmen of a hull breach. When the hole was made, the three of them entered the ship and Dale placed the cut segment of the hull back in place. Within seconds the hole in the wall was gone, the expanse of metal looked like untouched.

"Infiltration successful," said the voice of the Lotus, much to Rin's surprise. So what Dale said was true. The Lotus sees everything.

"Make your way to the genetics division Tenno. I've marked the shortest route you should take."

"Got it Lotus. On our way," said Dale.

Siren looked at Rin, her odd helmet staring right at her.

"You ready?" she asked Rin.

The Nyx took a deep breath. "Ready."

* * *

_A/N: Hey guys, this is my very first time actually making an author's notes post, so I just wanted to start off by saying I'm just blown away by the feedback I've been receiving ever since I've posted this story. It has been a lifelong dream for me to make a full length fanfiction story, and with all the positive feedback I've been receiving, you can be sure that I will see this one to it's end. _

_School and life in general forces me to type and finish a chapter only every four to five days, so I apologize deeply for leaving all of my readers at cliffhangers. _

_I will add some stalker stuff and other warframes to my story as it progresses, but one thing you can be absolutely sure is that Nekros will not be a part of my universe. I personally think that Nekros is the only character in this game that doesn't follow lore or logic for that matter, so I apologize to all Nekros fanboys :P_

_This is the last post for 2013, and you can be sure to expect many more in 2014. Thanks a lot for the support and may you all have an awesome New Year!_

_-bejuizb_


	10. Chapter 10

The trio managed to make their way to the genetics division with little to no resistance. The air vents were relatively wide, much to Siren's relief. She wasn't claustrophobic, but she preferred having room to move around just in case of an emergency. She was leading the group since she had the ability to detect lifeforms better than the others. According to the waypoint the Lotus had given them, she had to move across another dozen rooms to reach her objective.

Every few seconds or so, she looked back to see if the others were doing okay. She didn't have to worry, since Dale and Rin were close all the time. They moved as one unit, stealthily, without making a sound.

They had passed by several rooms in which Rin saw crewmen for the first time. She found them to be strange, with their large and bulky environmental suits and box-like helmets. Reese's name made sense now. Dale also pointed out several of the robots called moas. Bipedal robots with green body panels. Dale told her to pay close attention to the plasma rifle at the top of each moa. Through their neural link, he mentioned that those guns could swivel at a 150 degree angle and should be shot out immediately.

Every once in a while Rin saw Siren pause and emit a pulse of sound. The pulse told Siren if there were any moving targets in the room._ Echolocation_, Rin thought. Very useful for recon runs. The more she thought about it, the more she was confused as to why the Lotus had asked her to join them for the mission. She was a manipulator of minds, not meant for stealth and recon like Siren and Dale.

_She must have her own reasons_, said Siren through the link.

_Anyways, this mission is easy as it is. It's fine that you came along_, said Dale.

Rin nodded mentally and the trio moved on through the air vents. They reached the room with the terminal. Siren released another sonar pulse. After a few seconds, she confirmed that no one was in the room. Dale decided to cloak and drop down into the room just in case there was an observation window in that room. With a little bit of tinkering, he managed to unlatch the air vent cover and dropped down a few floors.

He was glad he was cloaked. The room he'd landed in was a large and spacious lab with several levels and many observation posts. He lightly padded to the terminal, sure that the Lotus was observing the mission through their helmet feeds and the myriad of security cameras littered throughout the room.

He plugged in the datachip containing the Lotus worm. As soon as the terminal accepted the chip Dale started scanning the files that the Lotus wanted. Within a few seconds the mission was complete. Dale removed the chip from the terminal; it now contained all the information sotred on the ship's databases. The Lotus confirmed the mission success.

"I've received the data. Good job Tenno. Make your way to extraction."

Dale nodded inwardly and tried to find a way to the top of the room to get back into the vents. He saw a series of pillars and pipes leading to the top. Taking a deep breath, he ran forward, rapidly building up momentum. He leaped and ran up the wall and performed a series of complicated maneuvers. He was back inside the vent within a few seconds. As soon as he got in, the door to the room opened and a trio of crewmen walked in.

Siren rapidly placed the vent cover over the gaping hole and secured it in place. Dale gave her a thumbs up and the group turned around to get to extraction.

Let's take the exact same route we came in, said Siren.

Dale and Rin agreed. It had only taken them fifteen or so minutes to complete the mission, so the guard patrols wouldn't have changed. That eliminated one risk factor from detection.

They silently worked their way through the vents, moving at a relaxed pace now that their mission was done. Rin almost fell when she was startled by a loud blaring Siren. Dale managed to grab her before she made any noise.

"Lotus-" Siren started.

"T-cyte outbreak in the live experiments lab. Get to extraction fast, Tenno."

Dale cursed. "Fantastic timing!"

Siren started walking rapidly, her footfalls masked by the sounds of the alarms. Beneath them the crewmen were running about, setting defensive barricades and reporting observations to their superiors. The alarms started increasing in tempo as they closed in on the shuttle. Dale heard a thudding noise behind them. He turned around to see quarantine shutters closing behind them.

"Get out of the vents! Now!"

Rin kicked a vent cover down and the three of them jumped down just in time. As Dale's feet touched the ground, a shutter covered the hole left by the vent cover.

Rin's heart was racing. 'What the hell is going on?"

Siren kept her bow at the ready. "Biological hazards are generally quarantined to zones in the ship. That includes rooms, windows and air vents."

Dale drew his rifle, turning off the safety. "If we had plasma tools, then we needn't worry about it. But since we have no means to cut or way out, those shutters would have trapped us in the vents."

Rin was confused. "Why would the outbreak happen? Don't they have containment rooms for it? And why the bloody hell do they have T-cyte on populated ships in the first place?"

"The Corpus perform live experimentation. They're making attempts into weaponizing the Plague."

Siren shook her head. "Money minded fools will never learn." She took her position by the door. "I detect four hostiles in the next room. We need to go through them to get to the shuttle."

Dale stood ready opposite to Siren. "Non lethal. Stay hidden if possible."

Rin stood behind Siren as they both overrode the door controls. With a soft hiss it opened. Dale took the lead. He aimed his rifle ahead of him just in case they got jumped. He quickly ran to cover and gestured them to follow.

Rin ducked into cover just as two crewmen walked pat the door.

"What was that?" she heard one of them ask the other. Their voices were garbled, as if they were talking through radios.

"What was what?" asked the second crewman, his gun pointed at the door. Dale motioned them to follow his lead. He crouched and slowly made his way across the room, completely invisible to the distracted crewmen. Rin and Siren followed him. Adrenaline pumped through Rin's veins and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears. As they successfully managed to sneak past the crewmen, she heard the first one dismiss whatever he saw.

"Nothing. I must be losing my mind."

_Idiots_, Dale said through the link, much to Rin's amusement. _They have the best sensors in the system but they're still blind as bats. _They were sneaking across a narrow hallway, weapons at the ready. Siren kept her bow trained at the door just in case. She released another sonar pulse, and told the team to stop.

Following her instructions, they took cover under a barrier for a moment.

"What's wrong?"asked Rin.

Dale checked around the corner at the door as Siren started to inform her teammates.

"Twenty fast moving signatures on the other side of the room. They're running after some stationary targets."

Dale grimaced under his helmet. "Infested. The quarantine failed". He looked back at the way they had come from. "Any chance we can avoid them?"

The Lotus replied to his question. "I'm afraid not Tenno. The fastest way to the shuttle is through the room ahead of you. Once in, head right and take the elevator down. Then maintain a straight path and you'll be at the shuttle."

"Roger that Lotus. Permission for weapons green?"

There was a pause. "Weapons green. Get to extraction fast. They are planning to turn off life supply to this wing of the ship". She signed off from the conversazione.

Rin gulped. "What do we do? Our weapons aren't built to fight infested". She pointed at her Latron. "Unless those things take damage from magnetic rounds."

Siren shook her head. "No, fire is our best bet. I'm not well suited to fight swarms of them with my bow."

Dale drew his swords. The translucent blades were a beautiful shade of purple. "We use our swords. Nothings kills those things better than a good blade through them."

Rin nodded. During the war, Tenno were highly praised for their swordsmanship, an advantage of which was the ability to kill T-cyte infested units with efficiency. It was said that a lone Tenno could kill hundreds of infested without firing off a single round. She wished to uphold that praise.

Her sword looked weak in front of Dale's twin blades, but she was confident in her abilities. The Corpus were new to her and she didn't know much about them. But the infested were something she was used to dealing with. Siren's weapon confused her. It looked like a three pronged fan that she holstered under her right arm.

Siren felt her curiosity. "It's a glaive."

Rin was surprised. Glaives were rare weapons even back during the War. Considered primitive and ineffective, the weapon was relegated to collectors throughout the years.

"That's a rare weapon!" Rin told Siren. Dale nodded.

"She's the only one amongst us who knows how to use the damn thing. Marksman's weapon."

"You mean marks_woman_'s weapon," said Siren, a hint of pride evident in her voice.

"Yeah whatever. Lets give those things a surprise."

Abandoning all pretenses of stealth the Loki rushed into the next room swinging his swords at the first infested he saw. Within seconds it was nothing but a pile of mutated flesh.

I don't know what the hell's gotten into him, thought Siren.

Rin laughed. The remaining infested now started making a beeline towards the three of them, each one of them different from the other. To Rin, it seemed like the virus had started spreading from the torso of crewmen, since those parts of the bodies were heavily mutated. She saw as Dale danced amidst the creatures, his ethers a purple blur. He was making short work of any creature that went to him.

One of them jumped at her. Calmly she twisted her blade and used her body weight to slice clean through the hideous thing. She didn't look back as the two halves landed on the ground steaming and spewing ichor. To her right, Siren threw the glaive with deadly precision. The boomerang like blades tore through two infested in the thro and killed another in the return. Rin had not doubts that she possessed the skill to effectively use the ancient weapon.

Together the three of them made short work of the infested occupying the room. Dale wiped his swords clean on one of the corpses, which was clearly a crewman. Rin was confused about something.

"When the outbreak happened, were the corpses already infected with the T-cyte?"

He shook his head. "I don't think so. The Corpus might be brutal, but they don't sacrifice their own troops for tests. This one," he said while toeing the still body, "was infected recently."

"But it looks like it infection's at stage 2 already. That shouldn't happen until a week after the infection."

Siren confirmed that all of the infested wouldn't rise again. "They must have tampered with the germination rates. Increasing the virility and ensuring a higher fatality rate."

Rin was angry. "Don't they know what they're playing with? One slip up and it's cost them a whole ship!"

Dale walked forwards, the ethers held ready at his sides. "Money clouds judgment. It can't be helped. We'd best leave quick."

Siren took the lead, releasing sonar pulses ever so often. She sensed the infested corpses several rooms away, far enough from her path to not worry. "We're clear till the elevator," she concluded.

Dale nodded, and the three broke into a dead sprint. They were all equally fast and soon the rooms they were running through were nothing but a blur. The quarantine shutters had been deactivated in this zone. Rin realized that the quarantine shutters were meant to isolate the entire wing from the rest of the base. Anyone or anything was free to roam about in that wing despite the quarantine.

They reached the elevator, and Siren bypassed the quarantine protocols to activate it. She stepped back with a satisfied hum as the mechanical groan of the elevator signaled its arrival. Just as the door was closing, the two crewmen from the previous room ran into the room, their laser rifles blazing. Rin ducked as a few shots whizzed past her ears. Before she could respond with shots of her own, the door closed and she felt the familiar weightlessness of descending downwards.

Siren drew her bow once again. "They called for backup. A squad will be waiting downstairs to intercept."

Rin turned around to look at the Banshee. "How did you...?"

Siren calmly tapped the side of her helmet where her ears would normally be. "I hear things."

Dale set his rifle to full auto fire. Time was of the essence now. If the infestation had spread this much in such a short time span, he was dead certain that the Corpus would deactivate life support in minutes.

"What about the remaining troops in this wing?" asked Rin.

"They're expendable. At least to them. Anyone who doesn't make it to the next wing is left behind to die."

"That's horrible!" The more Rin learned about the Corpus, the more she despised them. She placed her sword back in it's magnetic holster and drew her rifle. The Latron hummed as she deactivated the safety. The three of them trained their rifles at the door of the elevator.

_When it opens, scatter and destroy. Siren, disable them. Rin, kill high priority targets. I'll deal with the little guys._

_Little guys? _thought Rin. _Aren't they all the same size?_

_Techs. They're much bigger. Genetically modified. They wear big red suits. You won't be able to miss them._

_We're near the bottom. Get ready._

As soon as the door opened, they were met with a barrage of laser fire. Rin was nearly blinded as she jumped out of the way. She saw Siren knock them crewmen off their feet. Dale sprayed bullets through the moas in a large sweeping motion. She saw two of the Techs they told her about. Instinctively, she raised her rifle and shot two rounds into the helmet of one. The helmet managed to stop the first bullet, but the second one managed to penetrate it. She was immediately firing at the second Tech as the first one's body crumbled. The second was more ready. He began firing at her with a large machine gun of sorts. She ducked as a stream of slow moving laser beams peppered the wall behind her. She rolled out of cover and fired a few more shots into the remaining tech. He was surprised by her sudden maneuver out of cover and couldn't respond in time. He fell, making gurgling noises as one of her shots found its mark in his throat. She fired a last shot into the tech's helmet, ending his suffering.

She looked around. Siren had pulverized most of the crewmen with her sound blasts. Dale on the other hand had opted to mow down all the moas in the room with a wild spray and pray tactic. She saw the difference in shooting styles between the brothers. Oron seemed to fire patiently and in controlled bursts, methodically cutting through legions to reach his objective. Dale on the other hand was brash and quite cocky and preferred killing in style rather than efficiently.

All in all, thirty Corpus lay dead in front of them, and they hadn't landed a single hit on any of the Tenno.

"Guess numbers count for nothing when you lack the skill," she said as they ran ahead.

"Yeah. Big guns and shiny robots, but piss for brains!" chuckled Dale.

"These troops were basic security detail. Minimal training." said Siren. "After all, who would attack such a large research station?"

Rin silently contemplated the small battle in her mind. _These guys were a lot weaker than the Sentients. That's for sure. _

"Our way to the shuttle is clear," said Siren. "The infestation hasn't hit this level yet."

"Good. Full speed ahead ladies," said Dale.

They had reached the expanse of wall the the shuttle was anchored on. On detecting them approach it, the shuttle carved a hole on the wall. Dale stayed back as the cut section fell onto the floor with a metallic clang. He checked his surroundings before boarding the shuttle. Rin and Siren followed. She had seen how Siren and Dale had secured the airlock before, and decided to give it a shot. The door to the shuttle closed and sealed itself with a low hiss. Dale quickly made his way to the front of the shuttle and took control.

"But there's a hole in the wall." said Rin. "Won't we cause suction when we leave?"

Dale sighed as he took off his helmet. "We will, but in all honesty Rin, it doesn't matter anymore. The only thing that wil be left in that wing after a few hours will be infested and nothing more."

Siren piped in as she placed all her gear in the equipment rack. "besides, the life support for this wing will be depleted soon. Use leaving a hole in the hull isn't going to do anything."

Rin grudgingly agreed with what they said. It might seem inhumane, but in reality it didn't matter. She put that thought away ash she removed her helmet. Dale undocked the small shuttle and soon they were making their way back to the dojo. Through the port observation panel, Rin saw the lights turn off in the wing they had just escaped from. She could imagine the screams of the survivors, as they crawled on the floor, clutching their throats for air that would never exist. The thought alone sent ripples of fear through her.

Siren went back to her seat and continued to read her book as if nothing happened. Dale set the shuttle on autopilot. He walked back and placed his gear on the equipment rack.

"So, Rin." he said as he sat down opposite to Siren. "How was your first mission?" he asked with a sly smile.

Rin sat next to Siren. The Banshee was happily humming the same song she generally did.

"Confusing, exciting, and terrifying," she said, "but I really learned a lot today."

Dale nodded. "The outbreak was an unexpected issue. Funny that the damn thing decided to start when we were there. Ah well, we did well," he said.

"You did well," said Siren.

"Thanks," said Rin.

The shuttle wouldn't be back at the dojo for another 6 hours. She decided to catch some sleep when she could.

Siren's humming made her sleep much easier than she expected.

_What a day..._


	11. Chapter 11

_A/N: Mostly character development this chapter, and I focus a lot on talking and discussing internal dilemmas. And when I say talking, I mean a lot of it. Hopefully you guys like it!_

_And this is most probably the last chapter for the month of January. Exams are overwhelmingly close, so I'll continue this story full force from February onwards. Don't worry, a super long chapter should be up then. _

_I just want to thank everyone for your support, it means a lot to me. And thanks for sticking around :p_

Chapter 11: Time to Prepare

The three of them got off the small shuttle with a sigh of relief. Being confined to tight spaces wasn't that interesting or relaxing, and Rin could feel her tension ebb away as they walked through the large hangar. As they walked past their shuttle, Rin curiously looked at a new ship that was docked in the hangar.

It looked like a bulbous insect, albeit with four massive guns sticking out from the wings. The ship did not seem to have a visor for the pilot to see through. Dale saw what she was looking at. He removed his helmet and breathed in the fresh air.

"It's a Grineer cruiser. Built like a tank, but it handles like a blob of jelly." He chuckled at that imagery.

"Linzi's back," said Siren. "That's her ship."

Rin was intrigued by their descriptions of the Ember. From what they had told her on the way back, Linzi loved to blow things up, no matter what it was. _Pretty good warframe to do that as well_, she thought. From her experience, Embers were extremely lethal to infantry targets, being able to roast them alive inside their armour.

Dale nodded. "Yeah. Let's hope she got some good stuff." He patted his suit where his stomach would be. "I'm bored of eating that crappy nutrient slush."

Rin laughed, removing her helmet as well. "It wasn't that bad honestly. I just didn't like the texture of it."

Dale shook his head. "You've just had it for a day. Before you three were around, we've had to eat the same crap for nearly two months now."

"Why?" asked Rin. "Surely, you must have had some other food to eat."

Siren interjected. "Human colonies are the major producers of food in the system. And when I mean fresh, I mean freshly grown."

Seeing the quizzical look on her face, Dale explained how the Grinner cloned their food like they cloned themselves. Generations of degradation had forced the Grineer to switch to injecting nutrients directly into their systems. "Their whole society is a goddamn mess", he added.

Siren continued. "For the past few months, the human colonies have been put under immense pressure by both the Grineer and Corpus to provide them with food and other raw materials. Human colonies have been established with the sole agreement that they will be safe if they provide adequate supplies to both the Grineer and Corpus."

They saw Reese approaching them, the old man's jumpsuit covered in grease. An even dirtier Costin walked behind the Volt, waving when he saw them. Rin waved back as Reese walked up to them, a scowl plastered on his wrinkled face.

"How was the mission?" he asked Dale.

Dale nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. "A minor hiccup, but apart from that, it was smooth sailing."

"What happened?" Costin asked.

Siren removed her helmet as she spoke, shaking her head to loosen her tied hair. " We managed to secure the intel, but on our way back there was a T-cyte outbreak on one of he live testing wings."

Reese muttered a long stream of curses that made Rin blush. _The guy had a mouth like a marine._ Dale laughed heartily and even Siren and Costin joined his with soft chuckles.

"So let me get this straight," said Reese. "Those idiots were tesing T-cyte on live targets in a crowded research vessel?"

Siren nodded. Reese shook his head in disappointment.

"Boxheads will never learn. Serves them right for playing around with stuff they should nuke to oblivion. Anyways, what happened next?" he asked Dale.

"Well...we just fought our way through the infested. And we reached the shuttle. No biggie." said Dale.

"You forgot the Corpus ambush," reminded Rin.

Dale clapped a hand on his forehead. "Oh right. We got attacked by a squad of crewmen on our way back." He happily pointed to the rifle held on his back. "They were dealt with swiftly."

Reese grunted in acknowledgment. He looked at Rin. "So missy, what did you think about your first mission?"

"Um...pretty well," she replied. "A little bit of action near the end, but it was mostly a new experience."

Reese nodded. "That's good. Learning the stuff firsthand helps more than just hearing us talk about it." He pointed to the weapons on Rin's back. "Did they work fine?"

Rin pulled the Latron from her back. "I was only able to use this and the Skana. Both worked very well."

Reese grunted. "They better because if they didn't, I might have to retire."

Dale chuckled. "It's about time anyways old man. What were you both doing?" he asked the both fo them. "You both look really messy."

Costin smoothed the front of his jumpsuit, noticing the greasy stains for the first time. "The Ember asked us to check the induction ports for the primary core. She said that she noticed the power getting hiccups when she started changing speed."

Siren was intrigued. "You understood what she said?"

Reese chuckled. "He was a bit confused when he heard it first, but the kid learns fast. Opened up the panel and simply stared into it for a few minutes. Then he just picked up a few tools and started tinkering away."

Dale smiled. "That's really good, Costin. So you like machinery then?"

The Vauban grinned from the compliment. "Yeah, I prefer making things work more than fighting. And that might be a good thing since I'm surrounded with all of you soldiers. I'll stick to the back, making sure your stuff works."

Dale grimaced inwardly. _He didn't like fighting. He must have gotten drafted into the program. Oh, how desperate we were back then_, he thought.

"That sounds like a good plan."

Costin nodded as Reese stretched his shoulders. "You three best drop your gear off and report to the med bay. Oron and Vivian wanted to have a word with you."

Dale nodded. "We'll get going then. Where's Linzi?"

Reese grinned. "Where do you expect?" he asked as he and Costin turned around to continue working on the cruiser.

Dale walked towards the door, Siren and Rin following him.

"Weapons range," he said to himself, chuckling. She had to be the most predictable person he knew. The Ember went straight to the weapons range every time she finished a mission. She'd then go and gorge on the nutrient paste and finally hit the bed.

"Rin," he called out to her behind him. "Want to meet Linzi?"

"Okay." she said. To be honest she wanted to meet the Ember. Her previous squad member was an Ember as well, so she felt like she needed to know what Linzi was actually like. If she was going to work with these people for a very long while, she might as well start to learn more about them.

" Alright, lets go there. In the meantime, Siren can finish what she was saying back then." said Dale with a grin.

"Oh yes," continued Siren. "As I was saying, the human colonies have been under immense stress to meet the demands of both factions, which with the promise of war, has grown substantially. Its because of this that they've refused to trade any good food, forcing us to buy the nutrient paste off of them."

"They've had to sell the crap to use for exorbitant amounts just so that they can cut their losses," added Dale. "But luckily, the Lotus has very deep pockets."

Rin was appalled. "Why don't they fight back? Or better yet, why don't we fight back?"

Siren shook her head. "The humans have said that they do not want any interference of any kind. They've grown to mistrust anyone who's not part of their species. We are the closest species to the humans, but they refuse to trust us following the rumours and legends of the Old War."

"I've been meaning to ask," said Rin, "how long has it been since we were put into stasis?"

Dale smiled. "About seven hundred years, give or take a decade". The smile turned into a smirk as he saw Rin's expression. She couldn't believe that they were gone for such a long time.

"Well then," she swallowed, "it's no wonder the Old War is nothing but a legend now."

Siren nodded. "The state of the system is pitiful as of now. We, as keepers of the Balance, are trying our best to not worsen this situation. But personally, I feel like we aren't doing anything but mercenary work."

"What makes you say that?" asked Rin, as the three of them got into an elevator. She felt a slight tug in her stomach as the elevator deposited them to the lower levels of the ship. She hadn't been to this part yet, and curiously looked around.

"I'll answer that," said Dale. His face bore a grim expression. "Ever since we've awoken, all we've had to do is just go somewhere and kill a bunch of people or go somewhere else and blow up a bunch of drilling machines. You see where I'm going with this?" he asked Rin, and without waiting for her to answer, he continued. "The Lotus essentially uses us to do her dirty work. I have no conclusive proof that she isn't a helper or that she has bad intentions, but that's what I feel."

Siren interjected. "I agree with what you think Dale. Everything about that woman seems to be shrouded in mystery and secrecy, but don't you think we're doing this on our own free will?"

Dale shook his head. "No. We're not. We wake up after 700 years and now we're just following some woman who seems to know everything about us. Like sheep!"

Rin understood what Dale was trying to say. She didn't trust the Lotus, mainly because she didn't know anything.

"Valid point," said Siren, trying her best to maintain a neutral standing. "I believe we listen to her now because we don't know much about the world. We're learning on our own, and in the near future, I think we can bid her farewell, and work on our own. But till then, we must stay calm."

Dale shrugged. "Fine. But I can't wait for the day when we get all the damn answers."

Siren placed a hand on his shoulder. "We all can't wait for that day. Just relax till then," she said with a warm smile.

That seemed to calm Dale down. Talking about the Lotus riled him up. He started reciting a poem his mother used to sing to him many years ago. The song had a beautiful melody and singing it in his mind helped him relax.

By this time they had reached the weapons range. On walking in, Rin was greeted with an amazing sight.

She saw a massive rocket impact a small disc, sprouting a massive fireball at the place of impact. She shielded her eyes from the blast and turned around when she heard someone shouting.

"Hell yeah!"

That must be Linzi, she thought, as she saw the Ember stand several metres away, a massive box-like weapon held in her hand. Dale waved at the Ember and made a sign telling her to go weapons red. The Ember did so immediately and jogged up to them. She smelled of soot, thought Rin as the Linzi hugged the three of them at once.

Dale rubbed his head as she had taken the chance to bop him on the head with the rocket launcher.

"Hey Linzi!" he said as the Ember removed her helmet.

Rin was surprised. Linzi was very pretty with remarkable features. Green eyes stared back through a mop of vivid red hair, streaked with a wide assortment of colours. Rin saw that she had a few piercings on her face, one beneath her lower lip and one on each eyebrow.

_She looks...different._

"Hey! How's everyone doing?" asked Linzi, looking at all of them.

"We're fine." said Siren. "it's good to see you're back."

She nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, two weeks is a hell of a long time away from home."

Dale laughed. "By home, you mean the weapons range?"

"Funny," deadpanned Linzi, now looking at Rin. "Who's the new blood?" she asked.

Rin extended a hand. "My name's Rin. Nice to meet you."

She was surprised by the force of her hand shake. Linzi was much more forward than she'd expected.

"My name's Linzi. Demolition expert and as you saw," she said pointing to where they had seen the explosion, "rocket sniper extraordinaire."

Siren rolled her eyes. Linzi always loved to show off. _But_, she thought, _that was definitely a good shot. _

She looked back at Dale with a grin. "I have a surprise for you."

"What?"

"It's waiting for you in the mess hall," she said with a warm smile.

Dale was nearly skipping with joy. "Food! Proper, chewable food!" He hugged the Ember gratefully.

"I love you Linzi!"

She chuckled as she pushed him away. "Sure, now get off of me before I have to peel you off the wall."

Dale laughed as he took a step back.

"Nothing for me?" joked Siren.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about your gift," said Linzi as she turned around and walked towards a nearby table.

Siren caught the small object Linzi tossed towards her. It was a book and Siren was overjoyed to see the title.

_Green Eggs and Ham!_ She loved this book when she was a child. She gave Linzi a grateful smile.

"Thanks Linzi. I love this book!"

"You better like it," said Linzi, "I almost had to incinerate a guy for it."

Dale laughed. "Where did you get all this stuff?"

Linzi turned around, releasing the safety of her rocket launcher. "That story's for later. One more shot and them I'm going to go and get some food."

She aimed the massive weapon downrange and screamed "Pull!"

A dispenser shot a silvery disc which flew rapidly away from them in an arc. Linzi calmy traced the path of the disc and fired the rocket. The slow moving projectile slammed into the disc with perfect accuracy, causing another massive explosion to nearly blind Rin. Linzi whooped before setting the rocket launcher down, and calmly picked up her helmet and made her way outside.

"See you around Rin," she said as she walked out.

Rin quickly uttered a "bye" but the door had already closed.

She turned around to see Dale grinning at her.

"Well, she was...very forward," said Rin, which caused Dale to laugh heartily and Siren to smile with an amused look.

"That's one way to put it. Come on," he ushered them both out of the room. "Let's go meet the big guy and Vivian."

They walked down the corridor and soon reached the med bay. As the door closed around them, Rin found herself in a tiny, sealed room. Panic settled in as she looked around for an exit.

"Don't worry," said Siren. "its a decontamination cell."

A bright laser beam started tracing around Rin's warframe, eradicating all foreign objects on it. As the laser went on to 'clean' Siren. Dale chuckled.

"What's so funny?" asked Rin.

"Nothing," he said with a sly grin. "Just checking you both out."

Siren walked up to him and punched him behind the head. Dale wheezed with laughter as he rubbed the spot where Siren hit him. Rin giggled at her reaction.

"Ouch. That hurt."

Siren flexed her armoured fingers as the decontamination process ended. "You deserve it," she said with a grin aimed at Rin. A door opened up at the other end of the chamber, and the three of them emerged into the med bay laughing heartily.

Oron and Vivian were sitting at the other end of the room, examining something that was on a table. Rin saw that the room was pristine, from the floor to the walls. Tubing and cables ran across the room and she saw several warframe storage containers along the wall. _The room smelled like medicine_, she thought, as they approached Oron and Vivian.

"Hey!" said Vivian, looking up from the thing at the table. Oron shook his head as though he was lost in thought.

"Hey you guys. You wanted to see us?" asked Dale.

"We did. But first, how was your mission? The Lotus said that there was a minor 'hiccup'."

Rin chuckled. "That's one way to put it. We had to deal with an infestation outbreak."

Vivian sighed in defeat. "idiots don't know how to handle T-cyte."

Oron looked concerned. "You three okay? You weren't kitted out to fight infested."

Dale scoffed. "Oron, we might not be as good as you, but we can handle a few slimy infested any day."

Siren nodded. "It was fine. Rin did a pretty good job as well."

Oron smiled at her. "That's good to know. Before you guys go off to change, Vivian and I wanted to tell you something."

Dale sat on top of the table, placing his helmet next to him. "What is it?"

Oron pointed at the thing they were looking at. Rin realized that it was a datapad with a hologram. It looked like some sort of asteroid with machinery sticking out of it.

"We've got an assassination order," said Vivian. "The Lotus wants us to take out Lech Kril in two weeks".

Oron looked at his brother, knowing what he must be thinking. "We're not going to do this hit because she told us so. I just found out that he found a dozen Tenno in that asteroid and sent them off to the Corpus for deconstruction."

Rage welled in Dale's stomach. "That bastard!"

Siren pointed at the asteroid. "I'm assuming that he's working there?"

"He's running a digging operation inside that asteroid. It has a substantial amount of platinum and ferrite, both of which are essential to the Grineer Empire. This was where he found the Tenno." oron crossed his arms as he leaned against a wall.

"Now, the reason why we need to take him out is clear enough. He alone is responsible for killing nearly a hundred of our brothers and sisters in cold blood. Coupled with that, he holds significant power in the Grineer Army. If we get rid of him, then the Grineer will be in tactical disarray with a broken chain of command."

Vivian looked at the asteroid. "We both have a plan, but it involves all of us on the station, including the newcomers," she said, looking at Rin.

"Right," said Oron, walking up to the table and turning off the hologram. "That was a simple gist of the mission. I'll spare the major details for before we start off from the station, just in case things change. We have a two week deadline, during which I need to train the newcomers and ensure that we work as one cohesive unit."

Dale jumped off the table, a determined grin on his face.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's get straight to it!"


End file.
